The Lone Ninja
by HonestNinja123
Summary: The life of a MapleStory class hybrid girl.
1. Chapter 0

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Intro**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story nor any other copyrighted items or names.

Rated Teen (as far as I know)

--

Thud "another golem down," I thought. A stupid eyeball had not remembered the fact that I had my soft-looking Ice Queen Set equipped and it earned a bruise on its head, but was soon relieved of its pain after it was cut in half barely a second later. I went through some portals killing other golems just as easily and headed to Sleepy-wood to refill my dangerously low potions. I sat just outside the entrance of the dungeon around where Luke the sleepy Security Guy was standing, and decided to make camp for today. After making a fire with the wood from wood monsters called "Stumps", I sat down on my "relaxer" to cook dinner. As I eating warm bacon, I saw a dark blob coming this way. I immediately stood up and faced it, looking around to see if there were anything else around, but the plains where empty.

I yelled, "Are you a friend or a foe?" hearing nothing I stood more ready than ever, thinking about what that shadowed creature was. Suddenly it dropped to the ground, so I ran right at it with strides that could help me defend myself if it was dangerous. Once I got close, the blob was a sword warrior carrying an unconscious sin. It took an easy 15 mins to drag them both back to camp. I took off the sleeping bag pack from the top of their backpacks, unzipped them, set them both in their respected insulated sleeping bags, and re-zipped them to keep the two warm. Weird thing was, they were wearing some mixed 3rd job equipment. "I was lucky to find them around a no-monster zone" I thought before I retired to my own sleeping bag.

I fell into a dark hole in my conscious "Oh no…" I thought, "A nightmare!" I quickly tried to keep flexing and releasing my fingers to make sure I don't fall in all the way. I began to try to sit up so I can fully escape this new nightmare's grasp. "Darn, I'm too tired." I realized as I was pulled completely under a dark empty area in my mind.

-

_In Dream_

_I looked around, but there was nothing I could recognize at that moment. I turned right at the corner and saw blood, red human blood with bodies lying on the open road, a familiar road with Henesys cobblestones. I looked up and saw a big frightening monster at the end of the road. It had blood red eyes filled with blood-lust, a body of a gigantic skeleton's, and skeletal claws like a dead barlog's (which I had seen in the sanctuary after a party killed one). On its head sat the helmet and mask of a crimson barlog with added features to make it look more brutal, but in one bony claw it held a weird and old looking staff with a red orb at the end. _

_I was unable to move nor look away from the thing that was going to pop up everywhere and scare the living daylights out of me during the nights of the next few days. It said, "Join my army of soldiers and help me take over the world with the extreme amount of power I am willing grant you." I sputtered, "Who-what are you?" _

_It answered, "I am the chief of all barlogs and I have been reawakened from my slumber of 1000 years by some of my subjects who hungered for more power. You may call me… Death." _

_I stood stock still not knowing what to think, what to know, what to say. He looked down at me and barely said, "I'll give you some time, mortal, to think about joining me, but I will need to…" It grabbed me like a rag doll and drew a claw on my left forearm. I screamed from the ripping pain as if he took a ragged dagger and savagely sliced my arm. It gently laid me down onto the bloody road and flew away, but I didn't feel any wind from the flight of a gigantic beast._

_End Dream_

-

I sat up as quickly as possible, I even pinched myself to see if I was still sleeping or not, but somehow my left arm didn't respond. "I probably slept on it or trained for too long yesterday." I thought, so I waited and looked at the sky. The sky was beginning to light up signaling that it was dawn soon, so I got out of my sleeping bag carefully to not wake up the couple.

I tried again to move my left arm, but it screamed its agony so I grabbed it with my right to look at it. There was a HUGE black scar on it. It seemed to start to close up on its' own and a weird bruise started to create a shape in the middle of it. I didn't want anyone to worry so I wrapped thin strips of leather around it to help it heal, and I even slipped on my thin sweater so its' not an obvious bandaged wound. I carefully tried to use it again, and it worked just as easily as the day before. I started the morning fire to cook breakfast and packed up most of the other stuff. During the small amount of time, I created some fast plans.

-

"No… NO!!" The Warrior from last night yelled, and he sat up immediately looking around nervous with beads of sweat covering him. He spun around and saw the sin and hugged her. The sin, seeming to regain consciousness, groaned and woke up. I really disliked giving explanations so I left the fire going with some extra breakfast kept warmed by the fire. I used Dark Sight to get away in case they asked me what happened. The Warrior looked surprised, and asked the Sin if he saw that face that vanished. She had just opened her eyes after he asked, so I was relieved. I immediately started for Henesys to talk to Athena about the dream.

-

Later on that day…

"You seem troubled, what do you wish to ask, Ninja?" I used the codename 'Ninja' to avoid people tracking me down. I explained to her about the nightmare and what my left arm was like. So she just said, "Wait here." She came back with an old leather book. She told me a brief plan and we went outside as two cloaked figures. She called to two little birds and attached a small silver band on each, and they took off as soon as she lifted her fingers higher. Athena chanted some words and summoned a big golden bird known as, "Golden Eagle." We rode on the enormous eagle to Grendal.

-

The flight was awkwardly serious and boring other than the drops and climbs which I thought I might've fallen off (think about a really scary roller coaster without railings or straps to hold on to). We dove right into a mass of green leaves that were treetops, but there was not any impact. Athena explained through big complicated words and formulas summarizing the fact: some trees where images to everyone who has not passed 4th job yet and most of have passed 4th job could not see the natural energy anyways.

--

Re-edited in February 2008 and June 2008, I somehow skipped over the re-editing of this chapter…

People can't take things from INSIDE others' backpacks which everyone had received at the beginning of their careers as a "Beginner". The small packs, that people can strap on, have the same concept, because of some sort of spell that were enchanted by the past and present Mage Leader, Grendal the Really Old.


	2. Chapter 1

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 1**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

--

"Ah... Athena, thank you for bringing the book that I needed in order help you." Grendal greeted. I wondered how Grendal knew but I concluded that he was some sort of fortune teller.

"Hmm…" he said as he sped read through the book. I leaned towards him hoping to catch something.

"We are to fear the worst," he concluded, "A now rogue group of people are starting to do serious evil arcane spells that will sooner or later lead to the resurrection of Death, the undead Barlog king."

Suddenly the house/tree shook and the door burst open. In ran Dances with Barlogs, who stared at me for what seemed like centuries, and then he slightly relaxed. A fast moving shadow moved in through the door right after the burly warrior's entry, and the Dark Lord quietly closed and locked the door.

The leaders talked about how to weed out the practicing people so they can be dealt with, what to do with them, etc. There was water and tea that appeared just from a small wave from the old Mage leader's hand. The long hours of non-stop talking lulled me to sleep.

_In Dream_

_It felt like that I fell asleep and just woke up, so I sat up and looked around. I was at the same general area where I was placed down by Death, but there was a holy light around a structure of some sort of temple. The temple was a good distance away to look like a toy. _

"_Weird… Why didn't I see this light in the last dream?" I thought. Just then something grabbed me and lifted me into the sky towards the structure. Looking up I saw a human with wings. It wore a white toga, a pair of golden sandals, a pair of golden bracers, and a healthy green wreath on its head. "Wa... Who are you?" I stammered, but it simply didn't answer. _

_Once we got to the structure, we twirled around and around until we landed in the courtyard (think about the ride in the amusement park with chair-swings that you ride in circles, but getting faster and faster to about 5 times the speed). As I looked at the human with wings, four aged people came out the door and stood in a semi-circle in front of me. "It is time." Was all one of them said and the one with the long white beard held out his hand in a fist and opened it with his palm towards me. "Great…" was the last thing I thought before I entered a dark abyss yet again._

_End Dream_

When I woke up, I was in a makeshift bed under a cozy blanket. I looked up and saw Athena with a worried look on her face. As soon as I sat up I saw Dances with Barlogs watching out the window and eyeing the door uncertainly, Grendal searching through books, but the Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen… yet again.

As soon as I tried to stand up, pain shot through my left arm again. The Dark Lord appeared instantly and shoved some weird, light-tasting liquid down my throat, surprising me and making me fall back onto the bed. "Tell us everything after," was all I heard before entering that world again.

_In Dream_

_When I began to see things again, I looked around and saw that I was on a table in front of a very large hall (think: the dining hall in Harry Potter). "Ah… finally the legend awakens," said one of the hooded figures. Groggily I sat up and looked at the robed figures in front of me. One by one they pulled down their hoods revealing some human and none-human like features. They had golden or black hair but they all had sharp-looking eyes, ears, and noses. One of them stepped forward and said, "We are the Fairies of the Fourth Job Advancements. We welcome you to our hidden or WAS-hidden-from-evil residence. What do you wish to know?"_

_I froze on the spot with my mouth open and tons of questions racing across my mind. First that came out was, "What do you know of me?" I was bewildered when they showed me a sphere crystal that swirled with colors accompanied by a female voice, "Almost everything."_

_The first one that talked to me had cut in, "Kneel down young warrior." Automatically my body went to kneel down on its own when my ears head an unsheathing sound. "A sword, is it for ridding a possible threat?" I thought as I saw my left arm. Barely feeling the light taps of a golden sword, I looked up confused, but what added more confusion was when I was surrounded by golden and royal red light that temporarily blinded me. The swordsman sheathed his sword only to give me a glimpse of axes, spears, pole-arms and another couple of swords. By guessing, there is probably a shield on his back too. The right one stepped forward taking out a bow, so I bowed my head down again. Same thing happened, but with a bow and with lively green and golden light. After her was the "thief" lord with his dagger, and the black and golden light. Then it was the mage with a staff, and royal purple and golden light. _

_After the Magician was done, she whipped out a book with amazing speed. It had black covers worn with age. I accepted the book with two hands as a sign of respect and nearly dropped the book after seeing the fading golden letters on the cover._

"_Complete Hybrid Second Job Advancement Book"_

_From what I had read from my studies as a mage, Hybrids were combinations of certain jobs whose were often bullied about and named as cheap. Hybrids nowadays often keep their other jobs secret… I had only been able to cover myself of these jobs with dark robes and other articles of clothing as a thief, assassin, and bandit. I worn my own armor crafted by my own hands that and parts from the original armor from different jobs. I always keep my armor in my lockable closet that contained many boxes with their own sets of armor made by myself to possibly sell later on. No one had known of this… Or at least not that I had known._

"_Welcome to the rare job advancement of mixed 2__nd__ job abilities. This book was written by Alfred." The warrior said, stopping to grin at my amazement. "The 3__rd__ and 4__th__ jobs will have to wait until you are ready. This book contains the moves of all jobs in the second job advancement which the basics you already have started mastering. This is the full book for the first job advancement." On cue, the magician fairy whipped out another book, also bound in black with nearly the same title. "As you can tell, these books are old, so take good care of them," then mumbled, "even though we have more copies." _

"_Now for the other business… Take this extra copy of the journal of Sinbad's. He lived through the time of the Black wars and everything you may need to know will either be from this book, or from Gordon himself. You will not be able to find us so those two will be your only options to get information." _

_The Thief Lord quickly cut in, "Marilyn cannot hold on much longer." The warrior nodded quickly and stepped back. The magician said, "Awaken" and I fell into yet another endless pit of darkness._

-

-

Looking up sleepily, I saw very surprised and worried Athena. She was looking back and forth between me and something at my feet. I sat up and saw the books in front of me on the bedding. I looked at them one by one and flipped through the pages only to see a whole wealth of knowledge. I began reading the copy of the journal like a novel. Once I got the first pages done, I felt dizzy, so I grabbed my head as the Dark Lord snuck up behind me and grabbed the journal from my hands. His eyes looked like a boy who just found a long lost and precious item that he recovered. He sadly looked at it while he returned the book into my hands only to say, "Take care of my father's journal." I could swear that I almost broke my jaw during these events from gaping.

Turning my attention to the other two books, I skimmed through them to find all the skills of all the 1st and 2nd classes respectfully with mixed moves of two, three, and even all four classes. There was also space left in the end for any new moves. Reading through all the descriptions, I found many more new moves to learn and master. Practicing in my mind of how the movements are performed, I quickly memorized some of the basic ones that separated class from class and stored the books in my books pack. Once I got up, Dances and Athena grabbed me to hold me still, Grendal poked a soft spot on my jaw to open my mouth, and "Gordon" slipped some awful tasting liquid into my mouth. The four seemed like they had rehearsed this. Grendal smiled and said, "That should help with the nutrients that your body desperately needs. You've been asleep for three days, and now I assume that you want to go training."

The four already seemed to understand the problem, but were unwilling to tell me what may happen. Just before I left Grendal's house, the Dark Lord slid a necklace around my neck and disappeared, the necklace was in the shape of a normal miniature shield. The other three presented me with another book, "Multi-Job Tests and Testing History".

I climbed to a strong, high branch near the border to Perion and searched the skies for any surprise storms, for it was a barren place that was close to a desert. I jogged into the mountainous area after checking the clear skies. When I was about half-an-hour far from Perion, I checked to make sure no travelers were around before slipping onto a hidden path which was nearly untouched. When I found this path, it looked as if no one walked on it for decades, so I traveled on it while covering my tracks until I found a BIG area filled with all types of boars, stumps, and drakes. A worn sign beside the path said "Hidden Street: Watering-Hole" and at the center was a small lake. A small strong shack was built on a cliff with a rope ladder hanging down from it. I used this place as a training ground whenever I needed to get away from all the class and gender stereotyping. I grew at a rapid and hidden rate while staying for long times and surviving there by myself therefore no-one else could find this secret place. I decided to master each 1st class set per week and each 2nd job set per 2 weeks, and luckily, the four 1st classes I've already learned mastered. I planned to learn all the mixed skills by the end of the week, IF I can manage some hard-core training.

The journal was about the Dark Lord's father, Sinbad the Shadow, and his side of the story of what happened 75 years ago when wars and myths became real. The Test book was mainly telling me of the ways of how multi-job tests will be taken. All these books were fast readings for me. The horrible dreams no longer bothered me for some strange reason… As if something was strong enough to block them.

--

Ack.. I probably made this part confusing so I re-edited it again.


	3. Chapter 2

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 2**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

--

About a year later…

I entered Perion and I walked calmly up the main street. Interestingly, everyone, including travelers, families, merchants, and citizens stared, pointed at me and talked in hush voices. What were they saying? I didn't know until a little girl, barely five years old, ran up in front of me and shouted, "Are you the missing traitor?" She had distinctive orangey-brown eyes as I looked down at her. "Why do those eyes remind me of someone?" I thought to myself. But before I could say anything, her mother whispered something to her and pulled her away. I had no intention of getting messed up with rumors and things like that, so I continued on my way to my home and the Warrior Temple.

-

Making a pit stop at my house, I unlocked it and stuffed all the extra stuff beside my bed to relieve myself and my backpack of the many temporary sacks hanging from it. The items and food weighed a lot! Ten big sacks of sellable animal stuff that ranged from rare ores to rare bowstring (made from intestines) to animal hide bags to usable animal bones and other parts that have many uses. Five more sacks contained naturally preserved and smoked food. The more liquid food and sauces were contained in water-tight containers, hand-made by me with hollowed bones and continually water rinsed bladders layered with animal hide on the top layer depending on what they contain.

-

I entered the strong, ancient temple of the Warriors only to have soon-to-be and already warriors staring at me as Dances was in the middle of the Yearly Job Advancement Tests. A familiar looking male face that was sitting beside a female Sin said something to her while pointing at me. Murmurs broke out immediately as Dances asked, "Are you ready for the Tests?" I said nothing, but pulled out the shield necklace and nodded. Dances held out a strange looking purple stone in one hand and a red one in the other, while he chanted some strange ancient words. After the two stones disappeared, Dances said, "Your four tests will be tomorrow at noon, meet me here." Right after the Warrior Leader was done, the murmurs turned into loud whispers as I bowed and sat down at the side to watch the Tests of others. I left that spot after a while and climbed to the top of the temple to look around and breathe.

-

I still heard the clashes, cheers, and booing of the pupils who wanted to become stronger for their own reasons from on top of the temple. I heard soft thumping sounds of the sitting mats being stacked, the noise of the happy, and the crying of the sad going out the door and into the populace. I looked into the sky that bobbed with fluffy white cumulus clouds (the ones that look like cotton balls) and thought back…

_Flash back_

_I looked up at the intimidating Warrior Leader as I wanted to sign up for the first warrior Job advancement. I was still a bit shorter-than-average in that age-group. The powerful leader asked, "So you wish to become a warrior? Let's see…" The feeling of someone checking over you for flaws was nerve-wrecking since I disliked being the center of attention. He eyed me carefully and asked, "Do you want to become any of the other Jobs as well as being a Warrior?" I nodded timidly, I never could choose any of the four classes easily, but I chose to be a Warrior above all. After what seemed like forever, he scribbled someone on a piece of parchment and said, "Go to the others Job Leaders that you wish to also become and present this letter to them."_

_A week later I arrived back at the Warrior Temple after I met all the other leaders. I entered the strangely empty temple and walked up to Dances' Throne once again. BOOM! The doors of the temple shut suddenly, and when I looked back, I saw the other leaders walking up to me. Numb with shock, I just obeyed. Grendal pointed me to the center of the temple while the other three leaders walked and stood in a position that created a square around me. _

_Dances questioned from behind me, "Are you sure you wish to take on all four jobs?"_

_Athena put in from my left, "This type of Job Advancement is quite painful at first."_

_Dark Lord added from my right, "Training will become more difficult for you."_

_I answered, "Yes, I'm completely sure."_

_Standing in front of me, Grendal announced, "Then let us start this special Advancement." In my panicking mind I thought, "Special? What do they mean?"_

_As soon as the four leaders raised their hands for their blessings, every part of me felt like it was going to die from the pain and it seemed to last for hours. I found that I couldn't fall to the ground in pain, because I was held up by something invisible. I couldn't yell out in pain either since I didn't have any air from the shock of the initial pain. As soon as the bright yellow light of the Job advancement faded, I fell to the ground gasping for sweet air. The leaders walked up to me and deposited their respected Class Skill Books into my hands while telling me how these jobs are specialized for._

_End Flash back_

I didn't know before, but I was then and now, the third person in history who has ever been accepted for the Multi-Classed Job Advancement.

-

-

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! The familiar Warrior and Sin were walking right up to my right. About a few paces away, he pointed at me and demanded, "Our names are Baron and Mary. Did you help my wife and me about half a year ago?" I just ignored him and watched the clouds. I didn't want to bother answering since I'm used to not taking credit. If I did say "yes" then people expect me to do more of these small quests, and if I say "no" then I would be lying.

Suddenly, my feet were frozen to the ground and a big warrior blade was at my throat. "This is just too easy," I sighed as I held the blade with the nimble fingers of my left hand and used my right hand to summon a bit of fire to help the Perion heat melt the ice. I decided to just tell him by saying, "So what if I did?" then disappearing in Dark Sight. I laughed silently as I looked at the shocked faces of the duo.

Chomp! A Cargo was hanging on my right forearm gently with a big happy smile. It immediately dispelled my Dark Sight as the Baron and Mary fell over laughing. Mary came over with tears in her eyes as she picked the Cargo off of my arm, and fed it some food. I walked away with a smile under my half-masked face, and I entered my little house not too far from the Temple.

-

This little house of mine was almost completely empty, like my other 3 houses in the other cities. I kept a few pots and pans, dishes and utensils, and some other stuff in these houses in case I had visitors. I locked the door and set my backpack on the ground. I'm known as the "Mysterious Merchant" since I never carry a lot of wares yet I have TONS of the things others need during the market fluxes. I kept all my stuff hidden in floor that only I know where, but that's not randomly placed either. There is a vault that acts like a hidden room, and it's only locked and unlocked by key and doorknob. All of them were hidden under a rug near my sleeping place, but even the door was disguised to look like an innocent floor. I closed the curtains and set to organizing all the materials that could be left for years.

After I set the food and materials that cannot stand time tight in the corner of my normal dwelling area, I went the hidden stairs behind the wall hanging of this little shelter. The hanging was of the first Warrior to set foot in Perion and the one who first created Perion itself, Chester Perion. No one else knows that I also have a BIG practice room underneath since it was dug out of the mountain a long time ago. There was also a GIANT door that lead outside, braziers that are lit every hour of the day by some type of animal fat and big vents hidden by over-hangings that exchange air naturally. There was a door to a forge and the vent connects to the chimney of my fireplace so I could craft suitable armor.

All three of my other houses were similar: the house in Elinia is in a colossal tree right at the trunk, the one in Kerning is a lot like the Dark Lord's, and the one in Henesys was a barren archery range also under-ground.

-

"I'll need to be ready for tomorrow," I thought, "Mass Puppet." Feeling my barely-straining muscles and the flow of mana, I practiced every skill I know of. After all those moves, I took out my ID Tag that hung from my neck and checked my health and mana… not even an eighth of each were used. Smiling under my mask once again, I walked upstairs to make some dinner. "First, the cooking fire," I thought as I walked to the fireplace to start a smokeless fire. Filling a medium-sized pot with water, I threw in a couple pieces of Drake Meat and some herbs for my soup. "This soup will last me for a couple days," I thought as I got to work with cleaning up all my cupboards and such from some dust.

Just as I was starting my dinner… knock! Knock! "Perion Police, open up!" said a deep voice. Normally, I couldn't care less since the Police in all cities respected me or feared me. I took off most of the locks on my doors (6 of them total) and opened the door and waited for them to talk. The man looked like a battle-sergeant only instead of medals on his uniform; he had a shield with three weapons sticking out from behind it. He said, "Sheriff here, you are under arrest, traitor!"

I chuckled and wondered out loud, "What crimes am I responsible for? This is my house and I have a test tomorrow. Besides, why the hell am I a traitor?" I waited for a reply, while piercing his frightened eyes. Shutting the door in his gaping face about five minutes later, I relocked the door and went back to my dinner.

-

After a good nights sleep, I got up and stoked the embers to cook breakfast, good old boar chunks. I had no time to go shopping, so it was a good thing that I used every part of hunted animals/monsters for something. After I was done, I got up and started my everyday ritual which included: using the washroom, checking my armor, checking my weapons, packing, and then strapping on my belt of three pouches and female chest strap for weapons.

Leaving my nearly empty backpack beside my bedding area, I unlocked the door and walked outside, but… I had just noticed a HUGE mob with weapons. The kids weren't around so I assumed that they were locked in-doors or pre-occupied somewhere else for the time-being. Baron and Mary where held off to the right, and somehow more people joined the mob.

Hearing something childish and cheerful with my thief senses, I looked to the left, seeing a little girl wanting to jump off a cliff, over three-times my height, onto the back of a wild boar as if it was a toy or pet. I sensed that the crowd was thinking that I was looking for an escape route. Unsheathing one of my Dragon's Tails on my right hip with my left hand, I felt adrenaline run through me as usual except this time… there was a feeling of worry. I charged straight at the cliff and the boar and slit the boar's throat, minimizing the blood spilt, so I wouldn't make the girl cry. At the same time, the girl fell off screaming in her already high-pitched voice. I dived right at the ground where she'll land if I miscalculated, swerving in mid-air to protect her from the fall, and!!...

--

Relax, I'm not feeling THAT mean to leave a big cliffy like that.


	4. Chapter 3

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 3**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

--

"Oofff…" I grunted as she became a medium-sized rock that landed on my chest. Looking back, I saw the townspeople gaping in surprise with uncertain hands with half-raised weapons. I got up with the girl in my arms while getting a glimpse of the girl's orange-brown eyes I saw yesterday. I walked up to the big group, and they parted both ways revealing the woman I saw yesterday as well. I set the girl in the woman's arms, and then I walked in a brisk Olympic-Speed-Walk up the hill to the Temple. Everyone was silent as I felt many eyes staring at my back.

Climbing the steps to the Temple, I warmed up all my average-looking teen-sized muscles. Standing at the center of the Temple, the four Leaders of Victoria stood to one side and four robed people stood on the other in two lines. Grendal walked to me between the two lines, stopped, then said, "Let the Multi-Classed Tests begin. First up: Multi-Warrior 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Job Advancement." Just as he finished, Dances and the man in red robes walked up and pointed me to the town Arena only saying, "That is where your warrior test is taking place."

--

Walking into the Arena, I noticed that the bleachers were empty from the mob confusion earlier on and no one was around. Dances of Barlog explained, "You will fight me with one weapon at a time, you will use each warrior weapon of the following weapons once: both types of swords, an axe, a mace, a spear, and a pole-arm. Switch to another weapon on my command. Mean while, we will judge you by your skill and technique mastery."

Standing opposite of Dances in the middle of the arena as I felt my Adrenaline starting to pump and work its magic, I bent my knees into a comfortable ready stance and took out my one-handed mace called, 'Judgment' using my main hand (I'm right-handed). Sliding my Steel Ancient Shield onto my arm, I readied my abilities as a soon-to-be White Knight. Buffing myself with Iron Body, Mace booster, and Power Guard, I heard Dances ask, "Are you ready?" as he drew out a weapon with his right hand on the other side of the blade that resembled a thin, long weapon that looked like it was a cross of a sword and a spear or pole-arm (imagine a giant butcher's knife). Right after I nodded my reply, he came charging at me with a roar.

I blocked with my shield, but a shield might not last me very long since one smash from Dance's weird looking weapon felt like being in the middle of a rock slide. I swung my mace hoping to catch him in the side or hip-area, but it only resulted in me spinning in a 360 from the velocity. As I tried to hit him anywhere, he just dodged and countered. Something flashed in my fading consciousness; an image of me using Threaten behind my shield could scare him enough to catch him while he hesitates. Going through the same tiring drill that could end up getting my butt kicked, he seemed quite confident that I would tire out in about a few more steps. Using mana, I shot a black and white illusion of a scary ghost from under my shield effectively making Dances jump back in surprise. Using my chance aggressively I managed to whack him hard at his left shoulder. "Switch!" he yelled. Caught unaware, I only had enough time to switch my mace to my one-handed sword, a Red Katana that I found being sold in the Free Market a while back for ten times less than the normal price… Silly vendor, it had above average stats too.

-

While I wielded my sword, I realized that I could use Fighter skills as well since both Pages and Fighters can use swords. Controlling my mana once again, I quickly buffed (and rebuffed) myself with Rage, Iron Body, Sword Booster, and Power Guard. Feeling more powerful with a blade in my hand, I charged only to be whacked by the blunt side of Dance's weapon into the Arena wall that HAD stood more than 50meters to my right. Woozily, I stood up using my katana as a support only to feel a familiar energy that I had often used in sports with other kids, anger… pure rage that could lay waste to many. Blinking my eyes and shaking my head, I only used about a fraction of that power, using too much would make me go on a rampage. Seeing a quick flash of a moving creature advancing, I immediately readied myself and charged with my shield ready to block. As we clashed, the giant butcher knife squeaked in protest as it and my shield created sparks. Quickly turning, I slashed Dances on his left thigh. As we both jumped backwards a few leaps, he yelled, "Switch!" This time I was ready.

-

I slid my shield onto my back while before sliding my katana into its sheath at my left hip. While sheathing my katana with one hand, with some help of my left thigh leaving me on one foot, I grabbed my long, blue Redemption with my left had nearly the same way I unsheathe my bow. Hefting the big, blue, square-bladed spear, I went right back to my side-ways ready stance and using Hyper Body before charging. The giant blade Dances held would be dangerous, so I dodged with my spear and stabbed as many times as possible before dodging or leaping back to charge again. I quickly made many small, shallow stab marks almost everywhere on Dances. He smiled and said, "Seems you are getting the hang of this. SWITCH!"

-

I sheathed my Redemption and pulled up my Gold Dragon with my main hand. It shone red and gold with dull metallic silver on the blade. I held it ready as well, ready to slash. Many slashes were blocked by the giant blade which acted as a shield, but it was as wide as a standard snowboard. Futilely, I kept slashing before I leapt back to prepare my next charge. "Raaah!" I roared as I charged with my pole-arm held horizontally with the ground. Just a moment before I reached him, I swung my Gold Dragon upwards. I used the heavy weapon as a weight to help me jump higher as I flew nicely above Dances. Grunting with effort, I turned 180 degrees in mid-air slashed the blade downwards partially wounding Dances. He barely blocked with his over-sized butcher blade. I leapt back a few paces to try to fake the same tactic and go to another side this time. I realized that I don't have a lot of strength to get past that gleaming blade, but I focused and charged. In mid-stride Dances yelled, "SWITCH!" I grinned as I skidded to a stop and changed weapons as I took a few steps forwards.

-

I chose my Chrono (2h axe), and I quickly tried to catch him off guard by swinging my purple axe from its sheath with my left while sheathing my Gold Dragon with my right. He easily brought over his strong weapon and blocked as if the attack was like the fly that hit a windshield. "I have to fight on…" I told myself as I started to send a whole set of consecutive attacks. I swung: right to left, left bottom to top right, right to left, left top to right bottom, and then right bottom to center up. Following the momentum of the axe swing, I charged forwards a step then jumped. As gravity was working, I swung the axe downwards catching the giant knife in an offensive-defensive struggle. The strain of staying upright was tiring. Dances pumped his arms and threw me off. I landed on my feet a few meters away. Before I finished a step of my charge, he yelled, "SWITCH" for the last time. I took out my dark Doom-bringer with my right while slipping my Chrono back in its place.

-

The black blade was reflecting light. I looked to the West to see the sun not too far from the horizon. About an hour's time and the bright sun would be halfway under the rocky landscape. I turned my attention back to the fight.

I started to circle a bit around Dances so the sun would be in his eyes. While circling, I was getting closer to him so hopefully he wouldn't notice. He brought up his left hand so shield his eyes for a second, and I charged before he could see details. I stabbed at his left shoulder, and he tried to dodge. I made quite a deep wound, but it wasn't life-threatening either.

--

Dances smiled and said, "The test is over," he continued, "how well did _she_ do, Tylus?" I just realized that I had forgotten the robed man in red by the door. I looked at my Doom-bringer and stretched some muscles before I was going to put it away. I was looking down to stretch the back of my neck when I saw a red, gold, and a bit of silver blur just barely above my usual vision. I snapped my head back and quickly drew my Red Katana from its sheath at my left in defense. A clang of metal proved that I had done the right thing as I looked into the hood. A rough man with a face mostly covered in a couple of large scars stared at me as I stared back. I realized that he was Tylus, and he backed off laughing.

Once he was able to talk again, he stated, "Yes, she passes… wait… _she_?" Dances nodded gravely before stating something I had never noticed before, "SHE is the first lady to become multi-classed. I wonder what'll happen this time…" I looked between the 2 men as they studied me. I looked at what I was wearing, and I had been wearing my custom armor that made me look like a guy and I still had my bottom-half-face mask on. Dances returned to his jolly self, and told me to meet him tomorrow at noon at the Perion Temple.

--

I smiled and waved my "see you later" then bowed my respect to Tylus. I exited the Area and went through town to get back to my house. As I walked, I remembered that I had been cut a few times on my exposed arms and legs. I told myself, "At least they aren't deep."

--

The streets were still quiet, but I could sense people watching me from behind window shutters. I kept walking, but a little boy tried to cross the street while watching me. The boy fell in the middle of the road and an older boy with similar facial features ran out of the same door the little boy had run out of. The older boy was about 10 years old, and he held a shaking, small, and plain long sword in between us. I had stopped. A bit of wind blew past us, and I looked to the West again. The sun was dipping a quarter below the uneven horizon.

I walked up to the boys and the younger one was whimpering while hugging his protector's leg. The older boy's hands shook harder and harder as I approached. A man charged out and stood between me and the 2 boys with a hard don't-mess-with-me stare. The man had stronger outlines of the 2 boys' physical features, and he held a Red Katana and a Steel Ancient Shield (level 7x). I stopped again and locked my expression as an I-am-fatigued half-stare. My eyes were already droopy so the man held his shield to block any surprise attacks.

I continued my walking and walked right past the 3 people. I could feel their eyes shining in amazement at the back of my helmet. I heard a child starting to cry, and I stopped again. I turned my head to see what was going on. The older boy was entering a small house, and the man was following while carrying the younger boy (who was crying) and patting the little boy's head. I made a note of where it was, and I continued back to my own living quarters.

I placed some wood on some blackened branches in the fireplace before starting up the fire with a simple fire conjuring method that I had practiced. I took out a battered pan, a few slates of preserved meat, and a bottle of water from my pack. While heating the meat in the pan by the fire, I sipped at the water. My mind wandered as the flames flickered. After the rough dinner, I double checked the locks on the door and slept.

--

Not a lot of time to type and edit fan-fictions now…


	5. Chapter 4

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 4**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

--

I woke up refreshed. I looked out a shutter to see that it was dawn as usual. I warmed some smoked meat by a rebuilt fire and busied myself with the usual routines: wash face, brush teeth, use the washroom, stretches, packing (if needed) and preparing my armor and weapons. I secured most of my weapons on belts and a Wooden Samurai Sword (a level 15 warrior sword) I had made was stuck in a belt diagonally across my back in case I needed to defend myself against pitchforks. The sword also had my signature "NT" engraved on it by my own hand just between the dull blade and hilt (NOT Ninja Turtles, NNinja and Tmy main character's name's initial letter).

By the time I was ready; I sat between my house and the rising ball of orange (behind the house). As I watched the sun, there wasn't anyone around and I sat back, relaxed.

-

"Thick… thick…" I heard the sound coming closer in the silence of the morning routines of Perion. I turned my head to the right to see the young, strong boy from last night. Instead of the short sword, he held a simple wooden stick with pieces of cloth securely tied on both ends with rough rope to prevent accidental damage to others. The boy seemed to shake like before as he held up the stick in a textbook ready position for 1 on 1 dueling.

He seemed to gulp before he raised his beaten stick and yelled a small cry of attack as he charged with his stick raised in the air. That was a big no-no with a swift opponent. I quickly drew the Wooden Samurai Sword with my main hand and pinned the brown stick against the wall of my house just when the first quarter of the sword was within reach.

The boy tried to pull it free without much success. When he finally thought that he should escape, I commanded him to stop just as he nearly completely turned around. Luckily, he stopped and whipped around like an animal that had realized that it was cornered. I tossed my wooden sword in the air and caught it by the dull, wooden blade. "Try this one." I told him as I brought the hilt down to let him hold it. He cautiously stepped forwards and took the practice sword.

For a while, I had him polish his basics before a 2nd duel. He seemed more relaxed and confident than before after some time. Soon, it was getting close to noon. I dismissed him and let him take both practice swords home. I started towards the Temple. I was ignored and shunned along the way, so I climbed silently.

Once I reached the top, Dances waved me over and gave me a rough necklace. He smiled and explained, "This is the usual Necklace of Strength, but that little red gem is a Crystal of Power to prove that you passed the test. It is not a normal Power Crystal though, because it has been blessed by the 4th job warrior leader. You need the other 3 Crystals that have also been blessed by other 4th job leaders. The next town you should visit is the City of Thieves (Kerning City). Dark Lord wants to start the test next week yesterday. Good luck." I made a small bow before I went to the Free Market to check up on prices. The Free Market was at the base of Perion where there was a giant, flat, hill-less ground.

-

"Selling mineral and jewel ores, 15k each!" a random seller cried out. A whole mob of people came this way, fighting for the price. I checked the stalls to see that all ores were either 50k each or 75k each, giant inflation. I realized that not only ores had inflated, but weapons, armor, and travel supplies had also inflated. Smiling under my mask, I went back to my home to bring out the trade goods.

I managed to sell hundreds of ores for a large profit even though it was able 1/4 of my stock in that house. All past weapons and armor was fought and auctioned over, and traveling supplies sold for large amounts. By the time the crowd lessened, I only had a few crystal ores, some weapons, some armor, and some traveling supplies left unsold. The amount I had earned totaled to nearly 15 billion mesos, a large amount for anyone. I went back to my house and carefully packed away the money.

Since the trip to Kerning took about 2 days and 1 night, I continued to sell most of the other trade goods the next day. No one seemed to recognize me anyways, probably because of the large amount of Hermits and Chief Bandits around, and I was wearing my most ferocious-looking warrior set.

-

After the 2nd day of selling almost everything inflated. I looked inside the giant, hidden safe to see that 3-quarters of the shelves were replaced by bulging sacks of money totaling approximately 30 million mesos. All others items left inside the safe were some armor parts, some weapons, a few hundred of each ores and refined items, and plenty of preserved food that I saved 'just in case'. I packed up the usual items and started towards the western gate. The pack was as light as a feather compared to what I had brought back after training.

It seemed that all the citizens of Perion were keeping a close eye on me since they were all silently lined up along the sides of the roads I was planning to use. No citizen was relaxed, no children wore happy smiles. I walked down the road, feeling glares of unknown hate. Young adults gripped their weapons while some of the elderly were restraining them with hands on the nervous shoulders. I studied and watched each face, remembering them. I still remembered people, families and former Beginner people. Names, personality, and dreams that they had yelled out proudly when we left Maple Island easily remembered from memory. Teens, the age I was, looked like they had seen reality.

-

I neared the gate, and no one has spoken a word any louder than a tiny whisper yet. The boy I had given the sword to earlier had not been seen yet, in a matter of fact, his younger brother and his father weren't spotted yet either. I stopped at the gate. There was a living presence behind me. I turned around to see the confident boy with the crafted sword strapped on his back was jogging happily and fool-hardily towards me, and his father was running full speed, panicked. The father's face I suddenly recognized as Chad Matthews, a man at least 5 years older than I who is an heir to a White Knight bloodline.

The boy had pink cheeks from his exertion looked up at me and asked in his still-maturing voice, "Do you have another practice sword for my brother?" I reached into my large, nearly empty pack with one hand and started to pull out another one. Chad had finally caught up with his big, heavy armor and ancient Heaven's Gate. He immediately grabbed his son with his arm and positioned himself to shield his son from getting attacked. I looked at him; I was a bit confused and drew out another wooden sword. I presented the hilt of the hand-crafted sword to the 2 in an easy, swift fashion.

The young heir took the wooden sword like a boy. He politely thanked me and grabbed his dad to go home. Chad looked at me relieved, but confused. I just turned and continued out the gate.

"RAHH!!" a feminine voice roared behind me. I turned and saw Felicia McFlower charging towards me with a slim spear. We were on the same boat while leaving Maple Island and we were the same age, however, she was always the popular one in class back then and she looks like she had gotten her 2nd Job Advancement recently.

I waited until she had gotten closer, and she seemed to slow down before she got close to me. Once she was close enough, I grabbed my Chrono from my left shoulder with my right hand and swung a nice badminton backhand. The reddish spear was whacked to the side from the brute force of the axe's inertia. Instead of backing down, she came at me with manicured nails. I gave her an upper-cut and she struggled to get up again. I sheathed and turned back onto my path.

-

I wasn't disturbed by humans or monsters. While walking, I thought back to the school on Maple Island. A male teacher with army clothes had us training military style to a point where some girls giggled whenever a command was given. I was like a shadow, no one truly knew me and I adapted. During a check-up and speech, he commented on everyone, but his rough features seemed to smile as he commented positively with me. Since I had a mask on with many other juniors, no one really knew my face. I kept it that way even before attending the school. Teachers, schoolmates, enemies, and friends knew me mostly by my ponytail and my mask.

I sped up my walking pace to try to cover as much ground as possible. It was like chasing the sun, but it seemed more like a dream from the light rays on the brown-orange surface of Perion territory. I quickly set up a small camp in an un-occupied cave by the time the sun was half-way down the horizon. I brought some bushes from nearby and covered most of the dark entrance.

-

-

Next Day…

"Crunch, crunch, crunk…" the footsteps stopped. I peeked out to see a couple seasoned Warriors outside. There was a pair of metal-booted feet of the warrior keeping an eye for danger, and there was a robed figure of a woman with a purple Cargo on her head kneeling down and examining something on the ground. "Focus" I thought, and my senses of sight and hearing increased. There was a boot-print on the ground that had stripes and circular patterns. "Oh crud… How did I forget to hide my trail?" I carefully slid back as much as I could into the darkness.

"She goes towards Kerning, and she's probably close to there by now." The tracker finally stated without looking for more footprints. They started walking towards my destination. I carefully exhaled and closed my eyes to make sure they were going that way with the sound of their footsteps. I poked a head outside and checked the area before sliding out and buckling on my backpack. I walked at a speedy, but quiet pace to catch the 2 by surprise.

Hours went by, but they were no-where to be seen. Kerning City was in view now as well. The plumes of factory pollution meandered into the cloudy sky above only the urban city. I looked around on the ground for footprints, but there were no distinctive heavy ones that could have been made in about an hour's time.

-

I had arrived at Kerning, and no one seemed to care who I was. Urbanity was everywhere, and I went to check out the Party Quest Square which was a miniature version of Perion's Free Market. The prices were close to the same, and I started towards my small house which actually seemed quite small until I checked my Kerning training room and (not-so) secret vault. I had plenty of items stored up for sale, and now the prices had sky-rocketed. I had a good idea why.

I had already spent the rest of the day selling most of the stored items and the money was already locked away in the secluded spot which my house was located. I decided to leave most of my stuff inside the small self-build and protected house and go to the outskirts. I only kept my swords, my dagger, my claw on (which always stays on my arm unless I was in the shower), and the usual pouches and packs.

I was on the usual quiet road that I like to take when going to the outskirts. There was no way I could see if anyone was following me in this crowded area, but this area could help me discover any stalkers. "Whiz Whiz…" a couple stars zoomed towards me from the corner up ahead. I ducked and sidestepped out of the way, and a figure dressed in dark fabric ran across the street. Unheeding any other dangers, I took off after the aggressor. In mid-stride just after I took off, someone grabbed me around the stomach and had an arm around my throat. I dozed off thinking, "Sleeper's hold…"

-

I regained bits of consciousness slowly. I realized that I was tied to a chair in a sitting position with my arms around the back. I lifted my head slowly to see that I was in a small apartment which a male and a female in the room. Their backs were turned to me as they were studying something on the table. It was night-time and they used the moonlight, and I saw that there was a contraption that looked like a fat and short telescope in front of me.

The sound of a maturing kitty hissing was heard from really close by, and I usually always jump at that sound. The male came over as the female closed the blinds. Just before the blinds were closed, they were wearing some sort of goggles, probably heat vision goggles. My eyes grew accustomed to the dark as the footsteps came closer. The male stopped really closely behind me, but the other set of footsteps when behind the fat telescope. Half a minute passed before I could see figures in the dark, and the female figure was behind the contraption.

The big hands grabbed the top of my head and my chin before "Click, buzz…" the contraption was switched on. Bright light burst into my eyes, and I tried violently to shield my eyes. The female voice demanded, "Ninja, you have information we want." I kept my mouth firmly shut. She continued, "We want to know what happened in your past before you came to Victoria Island." I kept my squinting expression, but not a sound rose in my throat.

After a few minutes of silence, the female sighed and talked into a walkie-talkie. The static and beeping gave it away. Soon, someone knocked on the door and a couple of people walked in. "We'll take it from here." A gruff male voice growled, and I continued planning on how to escape. A punch was thrown and it smashed into my right shoulder causing tremendous amounts of initial pain and a groan to escape my lips. I swore.

"So, you CAN talk." A new male voice sounded in the apartment in relief. Since the faking is over, I went right into TRYING to make them more aggressive. As some know, more aggression means less intellect. I asked, "Where am I? Why am I here? Who are you?" The female was beside the male that was behind me and their whispering sounded familiar. The rough voice answered, "An apartment in Kerning City. We want information and facts, and we are of the guild 'VOL."

-

A realization struck. VOL was the underground guild which was strangely mysterious in nature, because no one knows who they are but everyone knows that they were the ones who had done quite a bit of good on all 3 continents. They sometimes use irrational ways of decisions, but they were always led by 1 leader at the top. Whenever a leader of that guild was corrupted to a point of insanity, they would immediately be attacked by others and therefore kicked right out of the guild. Rumors of how the guild ran are always impossible to even the smartest of mages.

Only 1 leader has been found alive, but he was insane. He committed suicide not long after. The others were never found, probably because they had been given funerals like many normal people. Some were found dead for no reason at all. These guys were dangerous.

-

Another punch struck my other shoulder, and then a kick knocked the wind out of me. There was no way I could escape if this continued. "Bull, I think that's enough." Oddly, I didn't realize that the female voice sounded familiar. A big hand tilted my chin up and opened pulled down my jaw, and some liquid was poured down into my mouth. It had an oddly sweet taste unlike a healing potion's, UNLIKE A HEALING POTION! I quickly spat it out, but a bit of it was already down my throat since I choked on some of the liquid.

What did this potion do? I am sure that I'll find out soon enough. I urgently began to twist my hands out of its bindings as I kicked out with my feet. I managed to catch a guy in his groin and knock him into the spotlight. I felt the ropes slacken; finally I was free once again. I immediately pulled out a tobi, the dark as the night, star. I used it as a dagger as I stabbed whoever got close, but after a couple of stabs, something furry attached itself onto my face. I fell backwards and hit a wall as the little Kargo leapt off my face.

The wall shattered, and glass flew around me. I stumbled backwards onto the balcony and hit the railing with my shoulders, close call. 2 figures began to advance, I snapped back to my ready position before standing in a text book defense position. The male spoke, "Maybe we shouldn't have hired them… But we've already gotten into their problems." I tried to jump off onto the railing and off the small balcony, but I looked down to see my feet encased with ice stuck to the balcony floor.

I focused fire in my feet and felt the ice slowly melting. "Now, answer us and give us the answer we want, no… NEED to know." The female voice urgently demanded. I could only answer, "My past is my own; it was what created me. No one other than me would need to remember. Why is another's past so important to strangers?" With that, I shot away from the balcony, shattering the remaining bits of ice as I jumped and ran from roof to roof. I realized that I was close to the free market zone, and the Dark Lord's hide out was close by. It WAS the safest place right now, so I went there.

It seemed that the whole area became dangerous with rumors of an assassin. An assassin who would take people to another hide-out which none returned. I know that the assassin was most likely VOL. The current leader must have been completely corrupted and now… Dangerous times have come, and no one was safe… especially alone.

--

Any types of "wooden" melee weapon with sharp edges are "practice" weapons.


	6. Chapter 5

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 5**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

* * *

I reached the Dark Lord's hide-out. The bar was loud and busy as usual as I snuck behind the broken toilet. I jumped down and landed on my feet in the eerie darkness. I walked into the hide-out and felt a presence behind me, warmly I asked, "How are your days, Gor- Dark Lord?" The usual soft grunt answered, and I somehow sensed many… too many people in the area surrounding me. I began feeling drowsy, but the fatigue won't disappear with a normal waking jerk. I went right to asking, "Is there a safe place to rest?" But the Dark Lord said, "This is currently your test. I did not hire or summon this triad, but this is one of the legends that the "Thieves Book of History" has, the story of the thief side of the Multi-Job Advancement. It is your turn to figure out the answer then act accordingly."

Now as a quarter mage, one never has time to read every single new or old book on sight, especially in a huge, gigantic library in Elinia. The people moved in as quietly as they could, and they blocked the exit. Suddenly, all of them charged towards me and I whipped out my daggers and began turning, leaping, spinning this way and that to fend off the various weapons and kill as many of my enemies as possible. "I have to escape quickly and find that book." I told myself as I began making my way to the exit. Once I stabbed the last man in the way, I sheathed my daggers, and I grabbed the metal ladder to make my way up as quickly as I could.

The bar was filled with people using the area as a night club can I ran into the crowd to blend in. "I am fatigued. I am in danger. I need help." I thought about over and over again. The realization that no one can help deadened my spirit, and the overwhelming feeling of blackness was pulling with increasing strength. I had memories of my past run through my head… the small group who I was always with since we all needed great amounts of support, the happy days on Maple Island, the athletic competitions I never as able to win, and the feeling… of safety.

I made it outside and managed to get into a dark alley. I grabbed the ladder on the side of the building, because I could get outside of Kerning faster across the roof tops. I leapt up and climbed, but one I got to the top… There was a person standing there. He had leather armor on and a scar on his left cheek. At his belt, there were 2 very deadly looking daggers. That scar…

I hesitated for too long. Once I made it onto the roof while staring at the familiar face before I collapsed, I could only think, "Is he really…"

-

I woke up under a blanket and on top of a small bed. I turned onto my side to pretend that I was still sleeping when a deeper version of a familiar voice stated, "So, you're finally awake. What happened?" I sat up. The shelter was a small shack similar to my own. I answered, "There isn't anything that gets past you anymore, is there, Seth?"

He replied, "After what happened to our party…" I realized that he still bore the pain as well as I did.

_-_

_Flash Back_

_It was the day after __"The Discovery of Victoria" Day. Seth, Kent, Carl, Ben, Rosa, Fred, and I were leaving for Victoria Island the next day. We were all 12 years of age. _

_Seth was confident and a quick thinker and not many things get past him, so he was the usual leader type. __He has black hair with hazel eyes, and he likes to use swift daggers. His habit with daggers and his friends was care. His family is based on warriors, but he strives to become a thief. _

_Kent and Fred were twin brothers who were often charging into battle half-recklessly, but Seth made sure that our battle strategies were used. __The twins both have brown eyes with short black hair which made them look mean, but they were always playful. The twins also come from a warrior bloodline close to Seth's. Their swords often had chips from the brunt of the attacks. They both seemed to know what each other were thinking, and the quick thinking of these selfless warrior-to-be brothers has often gotten us out of trouble._

_Carl always like__s to throw paper airplanes from a rubber band which nearly always ended up with the teacher confiscating them, and we all thought that Carl's rubber bands should have filled the teacher's desk by now. He has steel brown eyes with long brown hair. His parents were of an archer bloodline, and he has a hereditary talent for accuracy. Carl even stayed by Ben to study physics for bows and crossbows. _

_Ben usually had a few big books in his pack and he always kept reading them whenever he had spare time. __Ben has combed black hair with yellow eyes. His family is a bloodline of Magicians, and his intelligence surpassed our age group already. As usual, his strength was not enough to help with fighting… yet._

_Rosa was the only other female in our group of 7 and she was always placed farthest from our little corner by the teacher for some strange reason. Luckily, she developed the ability to quickly zip paper airplanes of notes and messages to us whenever the teacher's back faced the class.__ Her soft brown eyes can change to a deadly glance in a second, and her black hair was nearly always tied back gracefully. Her family was a bloodline of merchants, and her family wanted her to become an Archer or Magician. She, however, wants a more shadowed life, one of a thief. _

_Me? __I'm known as Ninja, because I have hidden my usual name to make myself harder to track. I have brown eyes with long black hair that's usually tied back. I came from a clan that had many talents, but most clan members could only inherit one… I managed to inherit all which made me a prodigy of the clan. However, the talents were still chained and locked away. _

_-_

_Our bags were already packed with the few clothes that the boarding school gave us. Before long, we went back to join in with the Maple Island Boarding School graduations. We had a great time for our last day on this little piece of land, and we thought that we wouldn't miss it. The perimeter was about 2 days' journey, but compared to other islands and places, this was tiny. __I was so excited to finally go on a big journey like all the stories I had heard in my childhood. _

_-_

_I woke up in my small dorm room and leapt out of bed. I packed everything I owned and clipped the pack on neatly. I took a last look around the room of which I slept in for a year and went out the door. I met Seth at the flag pole by the harbour of which our group was gathering. __He had a painful-looking scar on his left cheek that he had gotten from when he first picked up a dagger. He had tried to slash with it, but he ended up losing his grip on the dagger. _

_Before long everyone was here. Rita, the Captain of the ship and Examiner of the final test at Maple Island called all of us pre-teens over to take our test. The other groups consisted of many more people, but many (especially the females) had back packs that were loaded with many more unnecessary items. __We were led to a secluded area with a large rectangular shape covered in fabric in front of us._

"_All of us have gathered here to see who will voyage to Victoria Island and gain powers that cannot be gained here on Maple Island. All of you will need to split into groups of 7 for this test." Rita announced. We checked over ourselves and made sure all of us were here, our group of 7. "Are you all ready? Here is your test." Rita finished and pulled off the fabric. _

_It was a heavily metalled cage with pigs and odd walking stumps that turned out to be monsters. Rita continued, "Every group needs to kill a stump and a pig. They have the ability to knock you out. If your whole team is knocked out, everyone has to stay in the boarding school for another year. Who's up first?" Many of the head-strong, idiotic, and selfish went up first and ended up barely passing or completely knocked out._

_The other teams thought that we should go first and shoved every single one of us up to a combat area, but we were unwilling to go during that time. We couldn't back out in time when a pig and a stump were turned loose. Seth bellowed, "Get ready guys! Let's show those losers we can do!__ Battle formation Horseshoe!" _

_Our entire group ran into the practised battle formation with ranged in the back and melee fighters in a U shape protecting them. Seth was front and center of the melee section and I was at his right__ as usual. Kent was on the other side with Rosa, Fred was to my right, and Carl and Ben were protected. Our group worked in perfect synchronization as our U had flipped and surrounded the 2 monsters leaving our Rosa and Ben temporarily open. _

_We made short work of the 2 and was commented about excelling the test. The others tried but failed our tactic and barely passed. Everyone who passed boarded the ship. _

_-_

_We sat at a table in our room with our bunks for the night. It was small like the corvette ships we had learned a long time ago out of interest. We went outside for some fresh air, not to know the dangers. The sunset always calmed us from our anxious state._

"_So… what jobs are you guys going to choose? I'm planning to be a Dagger Rogue!" Seth began. "Warriors for us!" Kent and Fred immediately declared. Rosa and I giggled as__ Ben intelligently replied, "I am going to learn the path of the healing arts." Which made Kent and Fred look stupidly at our to-be-cleric, and then Carl decided, "I want to be a Crossbow Archer. I wonder why no one wants to be one… The crossbows are similar to guns anyways." Silence followed with our awe of the ocean. _

"_How about you 2, Rosa and Ninja?" Set asked. Rosa squeaked, "Claw Rogue." All eyes were on me as everyone waited for my decision. I stammered, "Uh... I'm not sure yet… I like all the jobs for some strange reason…" Nothing obvious had gotten past Seth, and Seth stated, "Well, which job do you like the most? We all know that you have the swiftness of a bow-woman, the strength of a warrior, the… partial brains of a mage, AND luck of a rogue in your bloodline. All you need is practise." I looked at the ocean and didn't say anything else. So the topic was changed to something more cheerful. _

_The sun finished setting and we went back into our room to find attempts of back pack digging, but nothing was spilled and everyone's belongings were untouched. Good thing magic worked here from Master Mage Grendal the Really Old's spell of back pack protection worked. The spell prevents others from opening, searching, and stealing from other people's back packs. We tucked ourselves into bed after using a chair to jam the door. _

_-_

_An alarm went and we shot out of our beds with surprise. The PA system declared "Abandon Ship!__ Remember to tell the recorders at Lith your names!" We managed to rip the chair away in our frenzy, but the hallways were packed with people. We were soon separated through force and loaded onto small passenger boats that went to the land mass over a couple kilometres away. _

_I looked back after we were a bit distanced from the ship to see the ship gradually sinking as the decks were still loaded with personal and passengers scrambling everywhere. In the skies I saw a flying beast__ shooting fireballs at the ship, and in the waters I saw a few fins in the darkness. The sea had spots of red that were seen even in the red moonlight. Tears lined my cheeks as I sat alone in the crowd of people with the hopelessness of never seeing any of my only friends again... _

_-_

_I arrived at Lith Harbour with my back pack, and walked to the other side of town. I didn't look back at the reddened ocean. I continued through town and saw the newspaper stand. "Beginner ship sunk! Many killed by monster attack!" and similar titles. I turned away and went off to go on my path. No one stopped me. No one was there to support me. All I know was that all my friends were killed. _

_End Flash Back_

-

"Perhaps we can rebuild our small group… maybe others survived…" I started as I walked to his left side. I knelt down before Seth cut me off with a sharp stare; then he turned back to the fire. He closed his eyes before telling me, "I stayed and read the papers. Many others never arrived. Many others were demoralized to the point that they did not tell the recorders their names before running into the forest just outside of Lith. We were still very weak and most likely not able to survive against those monsters. Most had their weapons still sheathed when they were killed. There was another paper with a page of a mass grave from those who had died in the forest not far from Lith."

I sighed before stating, "At least we found each other so far, so maybe we might find the others. It has been over 6 years." Seth grunted in agreement, but he still asked, "So… what happened to you? I find you collapsing on a roof and we're having a discussion." I told him about the main events before asking him about what happened to him. He explained that he became a Chief Bandit not too long ago and he is part of the Kerning Police Force. Seth had received this case of VOL a while ago, but he could never find the leader of this group.

"Well, now our only lead is that book." I sighed. "Hmm… Maybe…" Seth murmured. A dagger was at my throat and his left arm was wrapped with both of my arms pinned at my sides. He whispered into my right ear, "Tell me what you know." I bit back as many tears as I could, but there were the few that escaped me. We trusted each other, and now this? I tried to keep my voice still when I replied, "That was the last thing I know so far, I need the book if you want me to help further. This way we both gain something good."

Something wet and warm was sliding down my neck, and I twitched in surprise when it stopped at my shoulder. "Ninja…" Seth started, but he stopped. His voice was no longer confident and strong, it was wavering… was it in pain or relief? Or was I a ghost from his memories that he thought that would come to haunt him? He removed the dagger from my throat, but instead of sheathing it like he usually would… he dropped it beside him and grabbed me. He buried his face in my right shoulder, but his sobs were clear. I couldn't hold back the pain; I let my own tears flow. We have support from each other now, we have help; we have friends.

The night grew hazy, and we got into our own beddings. I fell asleep easily, the first time in years. (No, changing into pyjamas in the wilderness isn't a good idea, especially in El Nath)

-

I woke up more relaxed than ever. It felt like I was on Maple Island again, and that was over 6 years ago. Seth already had the fire going to warm some food for breakfast. He saw me getting up and he had his childhood smile. Did everything just go back in time? Seth commented, "Let's eat! We got some book searching to do." I smiled and picked up my share of breakfast.

Preparing for our trip was fast due to our experience and low amount of items we pack. I wondered, "Where are we going first?" Seth looked at me as if he already knew, "Elinia Library of course. That's the only place that would have a book like that."

-

It has already been 5 days before we arrived in Elinia. We walked from dawn to dusk every day, and camp was set up in near total darkness… usually in caves. We took turns standing guard, but the trip was tiring.

Tree houses were up ahead, and there was a big mob of mages there too. Each of them had smiling faces with understanding eyes. A man with white robes which I assumed to be the leader of the group called out, "Welcome to Elinia, Ninja and her companion." I confusedly studied every one of them. The (assumed) leader had a backpack with what seemed to contain a few bulging books. The white robed man said, "The prophecy told us you were coming. All the Magicians of Elinia already studied your past actions and concluded that what you are not a true enemy. Master Grendal wishes to speak with you as soon as possible. He says only that it is a very important matter and is critical for the future."

He's familiar from somewhere… I thanked him and made my way to the Master Magician's house. Seth told me to go ahead while he went to study the book, so we agreed to meet at the potion shop afterwards.

-

I finally arrived at the door of Grendal's house, but at the cost of burning muscles from climbing and walking. I caught my breath and straightened up before knocking on the strong, wooden door. After the first knock, the door opened and Grendal was floating in the same place as usual. "Come in Ninja, the book containing the prophecy is also in my library." He welcomed. I walked in, prepared to ask for the Magician part of the Multi-class Test.

"For your Magician Exam of the Multi-class Test, you will need to write an essay for 'All Mana Uses'. The prophecy comes after." He stated. I stumbled in surprise as a desk, a chair, a pen, and some paper floated towards a spot in front of me. Once the items settled down, I sat in the chair and began writing (and making up on the spot)… "Mana can be used in various ways depending on the effect that the manipulator wishes to accomplish."

After a long while of writing over 3 pages front and back about everything I know about Mana, I was finished. My mind was tired from pulling out all that information unexpectedly. I stood up on wobbly legs and stated, "I am done the essay." Grendal looked up from a book he was reading, and he revealed the title, "Thieves Book of History". He passed the book to me with a page open with the title, "The Man Defeated an Army". There was a piece of paper in the book, and it was labelled as the summary of the short story. I sat down in the chair and began to read the piece of paper:

-

Reading

In the darkest of nights, a man named Alfred had ventured out of the wilderness of Victoria Island and into the jungle of Kerning City. No one knew the reasons why, except that he had business with the Dark Lord. He seemed to owe the triads something of value that cannot be given after his death, or so rumours were spread.

One time Alfred was captured by the triad, but he miraculously escaped. He had been tied to a chair and tortured. Alfred managed to cut the ropes with a hidden blade and slay all of his captors. However, he received life threatening injuries during the torture and the fight. He managed to get out of the building and into an alley.

A man with black dishevelled hair happened to see Alfred with serious injuries and decided to investigate. The name of the black haired man is Raven. It so happens that Raven was a long lost, close friend of Alfred's who ended up hiding and protecting Alfred after the encounter with the Triad. Raven was an undercover policeman who was on the verge of discovering the leader of the triads.

After a long while of searching after Alfred's health was stable, they discovered a stone, a grave of an Elf King which had the prophecy:

-

_The life of a man of every known class will never be regular__,  
The man chosen will always be a fighter,  
The pressure of the world may break his shoulder,  
but his comrades' paths are safer,  
because their roads are hidden from the boulder._

_Dark ones will summon from belief,  
From the greatest dangers that the world has seen,  
They will summon Death itself,__  
The world may never see green,  
Just like the world will never see an Elf._

_For each person two paths are shown__ for a price,  
The side of life one chooses depends,  
A decision may be a sacrifice.  
Would one wish to bring suffering and wars?  
Or would one wish to bring happiness and peace?_

_Battles of the multi-classed man__,  
Will shake the world's foundations,  
Whether the battles are lost or won,  
During wars, none will give compensation,  
It all depends on the chosen one…_

-

An assassin jumped out of a nearby bush and killed Raven in a single stroke before running off into the night.

End Reading

-

The rest of the summary ended there. I checked the book and found that the story ended with the poem as well. Something was missing… something important. I gently flipped the page over to see if there was more to the summary, but the next page was filled with another story.

Something hit me, "Wait… the 1st line of the 3rd verse… This poem showed my 2 paths… oh no…" I ran off to our meeting place and realized that Seth wasn't there. I kept running to the library way down the road. There was a crowd at the entrance…

By the time I got to the library, my lungs were burning as my breaths were gasping. I pushed my way through the crowd, and saw Seth on a medic stretcher. Seth was in bad condition, his armour had gashes that ran a bit deep. He was breathing raggedly as he was being loaded into an ambulance (helicopter ambulance, apparently). I ran to his side as the white robed man from earlier shoved me further on. The ambulance was small but efficient. The white robed man took out a book and started chanting a healing spell (I peeked while he was concentrating). I muttered, "Cleric… books… smart guy…" I would be knocked stupid this day as I half-yelled, "Ben!"

After he was finished the spell, Seth looked more relaxed as some of the other clerics started working on the injuries. Ben looked at me and commented, "About time."

* * *

My futile attempt at poetry, enjoy.

I revised over this chapter for about a couple months, sorry for the late update once again.


	7. Chapter 6

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 6**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

--

It IS Ben! A groan escaped Seth's lips as we turned our attention back to him. I went to check his wounds as well, but my eyes were still a little bit blurry from the wild sprint to get to the library. I was able to see that he had life-threatening gashes mostly on his chest, and a deep cut on his right leg. When we finally arrived at the hospital, Seth was rushed into an emergency room to close up the wounds. Ben shoved me into a chair just outside of the room and ran in to help our friend.

I couldn't do anything except to stalk around my side of the door impatiently. A young nurse stopped me and gave me a copy of the prophecy and Seth's notes on it before he was attacked. I thanked the girl, and I looked again at the papers.

There were scribbles written then crossed out furiously, and there were small phrases of names of past battles with the world-ending monster. At the top of the last piece of paper there was a question, "How does peace feel?" I looked down to the bottom as there were some barely decipherable letters, "ASSas--" Something made me curious, who was the assassin in both the story AND in the library?

The doors to the emergency operations room finally opened and I nearly knocked Ben and some other clerics over as I tried to get inside to see the machine which tells heart beats. Instead, Ben grabbed and swung me to whisper in my ear, "He's going to be ok. He's just unconscious right now." I relaxed as I studied a long-lost friend. Before long, the stretcher was wheeled out and to one of the rooms. Ben and I followed. We waited just outside the room while the mages were levitating Seth onto a twin-sized bed with railings.

-

We had a 2-bed room, so Ben pulled out some chairs from the tables by the opposite wall and we waited on Seth's right side of the twin-sized bed which was the nearest to the door. In the room, there were the usual electronic equipment by each bed, a couple table on the wall on the other side of the beds, a small wheeled table by each bed, and some chairs.

Ben pulled out another book from the bag he always carries and started reading. Grendal visited and gave me the royal purple Wisdom Crystal Gem. I kept my ears open for any footsteps outside and any possible re-attempts at assassinating Seth, but I heard nothing else other than the breathing of 3 people, the heart-pace-machine, and the occasional page flipping.

I heard a plop-scuffle and saw that Ben fell asleep. I stood up, dimmed the lights, and made sure that the window was closed tightly before returning to my seat by Seth's shoulder. I tried to stay awake until Ben or Seth wakes up, but my eyelids grew heavy. I didn't want to take any materials out of my pack to create anything either. Soon, I fell asleep with Seth's upper arm under my head.

-

_I dreamt of a man with distinct racial features and pointed ears, an elf. The Elf wore golden plate and chain-mail armour. He showed me some images: Death the Undead King Barlog, himself using a weird weapon of some sort, and the insignia of VOL. He led me elsewhere before __talking in his rich voice, "Be warned that Elven prophecies always tell the truth. The magical society differs between males and females. Some parts may stay true; however, others will become false." I faded into a peaceful dream with humans and monsters co-operating together._

-

I woke up on a soft-feeling surface and under a blanket, so I snuggled into the bed hoping to rest a bit more. "SETH!" my mind shouted, and I jolted upright to see Ben arriving into our room again with a tray of breakfast. I looked at the bed to see that I was under another blanket and on the other bed. My packs, weapons, and outer armour were on the small wheeled table between me and the wall, other than that nothing else was removed from me. I felt woozy for some strange reason.

Ben calmly put the tray on a wheeled table and urged me to rest some more, but I tried to get up. He held me down by a hand, and pulled out a small vial with his other hand. The confusion ran though my head, "What's going on? Why can't I use any strength?" Ben uncorked and made me breath in some fumes from the vial while saying, "This will help; you haven't gotten enough rest lately from that attack in Kerning. I heard the news from one of our magicians working at the hospital there."

I fell unconscious and dreamt.

-

_**Ben's POV**_

Earlier today, I had gotten a well written report from the head-priest from Kerning. There had been a fight between some VOL members and one called "Ninja" who was with an important member of the Kerning Police, "Seth". There was blood found close to the top of a building that a sharp-eyed apprentice of the hospital saw, and he ran to the hospital to get some supplies for DNA samples.

Once the tests were completed, Ninja's DNA was found, but there were some sort of drug in the blood as well. It had to enter the bloodstream to work. The drug temporarily reduces the victim's energy regeneration rate for a week at most. There had been rumours that Ninja and Seth had ran to Perion for shelter, but now they were here in Elinia. I had gotten that report the day before yesterday by a falcon sent by the Kerning Police.

Once she can actually sit up on a bed without getting dizzy, I'll let her sit by Seth with me.

-

It was the day after I made Ninja fall asleep with those sleeping fumes. I have been letting her get a whiff of the potion once every 8 hours to make sure that she stays asleep until a full 24 hours.

Seth groaned as he shook himself awake. I called for breakfast on a phone, and it was brought in quite quickly. He jolted and searched around for something, then relaxed when he saw Ninja. I helped Seth sit up before I had him eat. While he ate, I told him what had happened so far.

-

_**Back to Ninja's POV**_

I woke up again feeling better, and I sat up while Seth was eating while chatting with Ben. I sat up to greet them, and Ben stepped over, and Seth almost tumbling out of bed with a tray already pushed to the foot of his bed. "How do you feel?" Ben questioned firmly. I carefully stood up and tested my balance before answering, "Normal, why?" A breath was released from each of them as Ben phoned in for my breakfast. After sleeping for a full 24 hours, I chomped down the bread, salad, and piece of jerky, and I ended my small feast with gulping down orange juice. Ben explained what had happened, and we talked about the days that we were still together in one big group while we were staying for another couple nights to let Seth recover.

-

After lunch the next day:

A young messenger ran in panting, "Doctor Ben! Urgent message for you!" Ben opened the folder and took out what seems to be a report, his speedy eyes absorbed the letters. He gasped before running to the window. Seth and I hurried behind him. There was a helicopter heading over us to the landing area, and I peeked at the report. "Another patient attacked." Was all I saw before he ran out the door telling us to stay here, after he gave us the report.

The report detailed the injuries on a patient that was supposedly attacked by a VOL member for no reason. It states that a female is with the male patient, and that they were targeted by a now dead VOL hit-man. The hit-man was given some stars and arrows that were near fatal, but the cross-bow arrow though the chest was fatal. The patient went by the name Carl, and he was accompanied by an unknown female Hermit. "Rosa." Seth and I determined aloud at the same time. We went to Seth's bed and flipped through some magazines together.

-

After the surgery was done and Carl was strolled into our room, a nurse came to take me to the room next door. The interior design was the same. Inside I saw a girl my age dressed in black on the bed closest to the window. She was on her stomach with her head in the pillow, and she was crying. Whether in relief or sadness, I didn't know. I stuttered, "Rosa?" She immediately turned around, jumped off of the bed, and tackled me into the wall. Her brown eyes were sharp as we studied each other to be sure.

Crying out each others' names in happiness, we went to the boys' room and talk about everything from the ship attack to now. Carl was on my original bed, and I was moved to the other bed in Rosa's room. Rosa sat on now-Carl's bed, Ben had pulled up a chair, and I sat on Seth's right-hand side on his bed. Rosa, Ben, and Carl (who was filled in 10 minutes into the conversation after waking up) were surprised that the multi-jobbed person was me.

Hours later, it was dark outside, and a couple men came in introduced as an inspector of the Kerning Police and an inspector of the Henesys Police. Seth immediately pulled me in protectively as the Kerning inspector came close. The Kerning inspector had an air of aggression against Seth for some strange reason. Ben seemed to be quite agitated by it and stood up, "Excuse me. I need to spend some time with my patients. Please leave now." The Henesys inspector left to wait just outside with respect, but the Kerning inspector seemed reluctant to leave. He gave Seth a glare before hastily turning, stalking out the door, and slamming it shut. The Kerning inspector did not seem to care that his studs grazed the side of the door, and during the entire time he was twirling his Kandine daggers. I looked at Seth who was glaring at the door.

Seth explained, "He is a fellow inspector, but he always seemed to be jealous of me… He had tried to get me fired quite a few times, and he created fake proof that got him on probation every single time. He's known as "Inspector Wuss" to everyone in the office due to his inability to face me, even though his real name is Alfred Leetburg. I don't know why he's jealous, but he refused my help every single time I offered it.

After some discussion, we decided to let in the Henesys inspector. He introduced himself as Mark Raywood, and he immediately showed his distaste for Leetburg when we questioned about him. He took out a folder with pictures of the attack a nearby, hidden citizen of Henesys had taken, and he also made the pictures print out in the highest quality possible. The assailant was a dagger wielder, and those weapons were Kandines! He was wearing light black leather armour, and had many glinting studs on his armour. I groaned, "This could be ANYONE… Black clothing with studs is popular these days, and so are Kandines!"

A tiny golden speck on the right shoulder caught my eye, the picture with the assassin stabbing with his left hand. I quickly asked for a magnifying glass and a description of the VOL guild emblem. Seth described the emblem to be a black snake poised ready to strike, and the letters "VOL" were in red. Once the magnifying glass was here, I held it over the spot and it was a badge… a police badge. The letters were too small and blurred to be deciphered, but Seth grabbed the materials. He looked around on the wrists and leggings, and then he started shaking.

His eyes betrayed shock while he explained, "On the arms and legs… every police has bands that have unique codes to signify different people." He took out his own 4 bands from is bag, it had the initials KP063. Seth continued, "KP stands for Kerning Police, and the 063 is my public ID number." The code on the Henesys inspector was HP015 which would stand for Henesys Police. I looked at all the pictures to decipher the code, "KP192" and I wondered aloud, "How about we let in the other inspector?" I poked out the handle of my own Kandine, and twisted it into a spot where others would not see. Seth added, "If any police loses one of their 4 bands…" Mark continued, "They have to report it immediately so the possible impostor will not be able to escape…"

The others looked surprised, but agreed. After everyone readied a small weapon, we let in the proud, stomping Inspector Wuss. Unmistakably, the codes on his bands were, "KP192". We all glared, and he twitched nervously. He walked past the Henesys inspector to Seth and me. He stopped a couple feet away so he was in the middle of the circle, and he said, "So, how about we look into this?" Seth smiled and responded, "We already have." Inspector Leetburg's grin faded, and Seth pounced onto him. In a split second, Alfred was on the ground face down with both hands in the middle of getting handcuffed. I blinked in surprise. Everyone relaxed a bit once Alfred was tied to another chair to start the questioning.

Whoosh… Alfred disappeared and the bonds fell empty. A deflating sound came from behind me, but before I could do anything a hand looped across my shoulders and another Kandine was at my throat. "Great…" I thought before everyone gasped as Alfred appeared. I couldn't see, but he was probably grinning. "Now, _Ninja_, you can choose. Join VOL to gain ultimate power and rule the world, or… die here." He said. I focused a Magic Guard with reinforced strength around my neck and head. I grinned, which shocked everyone who could see me, and replied with a simple, "no." I twirled counter-clockwise and felt something being blocked by my mana shield at the back of my head. I launched by twisting my body and pushing off with my right-side limbs, and I also unsheathed my dagger with my left hand from my right side and slashed.

I looked to see that he now has a diagonal slash right in the middle of his face, just missing his eyes. The movement was fast enough so no blood spurted out immediately, and I shoved him away from me with some power from my legs. Whirling projectiles whizzed past my head and held the traitorous inspector to the wall. Some more stars flew by and each had cut off the bands. It struck me, "But then that means…" I shot a star at his badge, and both the star and the police badge fell off, and it revealed… the VOL emblem. He looked up, smiled, and said, "May VOL rule the world!" Seth tackled me to the ground in between the beds, Mark and Ben tackled the surprised Rosa and the heavily bandaged Carl to the other side of Carl's bed.

BOOM! Hot air from the explosion flew past, but only my back felt it. Seth was on top of me with his arms holding and protecting my head. His right cheek was against my left shoulder which was covered by his right shoulder. I opened an eye as smaller explosions went off to see rage and worry in his eyes.

Once the explosions stopped, we got up. The others had a bit of difficulty due to someone who had just had his wounds stitched up. Seth and I examined the remains to find that Alfred had explosives at all major organs. Mark came over to check up on the corpse. I had a hand on Seth's back, and he strangely flinched once at the touch. It was confirmed that the use of the skill "Meso Explosion" was to prevent information leak by death, and the explosions were to injure or kill anyone in a 2-5 metre radius without anything in the way other than armour.

Once Carl was on his bed and comfy with Rosa sitting by his side. I forced Seth to lie on his stomach, and tugged up his shirt so most of his back was exposed. His back was red and swelling up, so I immediately told Ben to get some bandages and ice. I completely stripped off the shirt after Seth seemed to give up hiding his pain. After bandaging up the entire red area, we set the ice on top in bags as Seth was bored out of his mind. The body was removed after many pictures were taken by the Elinia Police.

It wasn't long after until I decided to get some groceries of some cheaper supplies before it gets dark. I buckled on all my weapons and armour just in case something else happens, VOL knows we're here.

--

I left the hospital and headed to the potion shop to find that there were many civilians there happily chatting away. A grumpy looking, giant, male warrior was coming my way while looking elsewhere. I tried to dodge him, but there wasn't any time once I realized that we were on a crash course. A hand grabbed the leather armour at the base of my neck, and an angry voice growled, "Watch where you're going. Or I'm going to pummel you until you want me to end your misery." I casually removed his hand by pushing it away and stepped past him.

The entire crowd was pointing at us and chatting away with excitement or worry. I kept walking to the potion shop when a force hit me from behind that sent me flying a good few metres.

--

My word count says over 3k words o.O

I'm also confused why I keep making cliff-hangers. I should have more time to work on the next chapter. Maybe that's why people aren't leaving reviews… in that case… MORE REVIEWS UNLESS READERS WANT MORE CLIFFIES!!

Thanks to Randomness for the ongoing support


	8. Chapter 7

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 7**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

Note: I should have stated this earlier, but… in this story Assassins wear their claws pretty much all the time. The claws are considered weapons so they CAN take off their claws.

--

A force hit me from behind that sent me flying a good few metres. I spun in mid-air and landed neatly. The warrior had a helmet on, but his stature did not look familiar. He unsheathed his giant, golden Helios (a level 80 2-handed axe) that had some small chips around the circular circumference. To gain the upper hand, I unsheathed my Thorns. "I should try not to hurt him too much…" I thought to myself before dodging his attack by teleporting. I turned at quickly shot burning hot "Fire Arrows" rapidly at his plate-armoured back until it grew red hot and he was dancing around trying to take it off.

After a good minute of him yelping, I decided to cool down the armour that was still on his back with ice shards summoned with "Cold Beam." The armour turned into a dull, grey, iron colour and he was now yelping about wearing freezing armour. I sighed before using some precisely aimed (at a moving target's armour buckles) magic claws and the 2 parts of the armour clattered onto the giant hard branch we were on. First thing he did, was growl and charge. Not the smartest thing to do, especially when one is tired. I sheathed my Thorns and flicked my wrist sending a (spinning) top at his feet. He stumbled and fell with a face plant. I continued on my way as the crowd was in a laughing fit.

Luckily, there were some stalls just outside with many items sold by other people such as pigments, books, materials, and nearly anything else dropped or made by others. My eyes caught a heavy leather cloak, just big enough to wrap comfortably around me, and I bartered for a nice, cheap price. The materials were from yetis of El Nath, very hard to hunt.

Yetis were giant ape-like creatures with a blocky head, and they come in a white or brown coat. They were solitary except when it is mating season or when they find a penguin buddy.

I didn't find anything else of interest, and then went to restock on potions and stars. After I came out, I headed back to the hospital the same way that I came. I was stopped by a similar looking warrior wielding a big spear with an Omega symbol at one end that had little nicks in the edges. The spear wielder had the warrior I fought with by the scruff of his (the axe warrior's) shirt's neck collar. "Apologize to him, Fred." The spear wielder commanded. I remembered that I had my mask on, so I growled, "Excuse me? Him?!" in the most indignant voice I could muster.

The spear-wielder looked surprised and apologized. Fred was dropped in the surprise and he was now on his knees also apologizing profusely. After I said I forgave them, the 2 were standing side-by-side thinking about what to say. They were the same height and had similar muscle builds.

It was getting dark, and the street/branch lights were turned on. They took off their helmets and apologized again before leaving hastily. They had brown eyes, carelessly cropped-short, black hair, and had very similar facial features. I checked the position of the sun, and hurried to my house before going back to the hospital.

-

Once I got back and dumped most of my stuff in my bags, I went to Seth's room. Seth was tied onto the bed with Mark and Ben trying to keep the bags of ice on his back, but Seth calmed down after he saw me. After a bit of story-telling, everyone looked a bit curious. Could those 2 warriors be Kent and Fred?

The silence was broken when the phone rang. Ben picked it up and had to hold it away from his ear to listen to what the person on the other end was saying. After some talking to the screaming white phone, Ben covered our talking end and asked me, "There are a male warrior and a female assassin and I-slash-L wizard hybrid asking for your name." I covered my face and groaned before telling everyone about the… past "meetings" we had.

Seth finally slipped out of his bindings, undid them, and hid them away. He got into bed and said, "Tell them that we're sleeping." before he fell asleep. Ben said to tell them to come back in the morning then hung up. He allowed the Henesys Inspector to go to his hotel room before Ben unlocked the doors between our rooms and checked to make sure that the locks were secure. The 2 doors between the rooms showed us the strangely thick wall. Rosa and I checked back into the guy's room and saw that Ben was sleeping on the hidden bed attached to the wall. There was another door on the opposite side of the room that Rosa and I were peeking in from. It was slightly opened and revealed a bathroom. After taking turns in the bathroom, Rosa and I slept in our own beds.

-

**Fred's POV:**

"Hey, do you really think that she was one of our buddies from…" I asked, but my brother replied, "They're probably dead, not many survived the monster attack nor the slimes and snails in the forest. Anyone can dress up like them and what-not." A tear trickled down his face. He always adapted to Ninja's different fighting style back in the days, which now was the reason why we're still alive… And I always liked Rosa standing behind me with small projectiles always killing the monster/creature before I even get to them. Less work for me back then.

At least now we have a job as mercenaries… We did odd jobs for a living, but it was the only way to "build character and power" as our family usually went by.

The bed I was lying on in our hotel room was nice and soft. The room was small, but comfortably wooden. Kent was warming up some beef in a specially designed box that was called a "My-crow-wave." We were ordered to wait for our next assignment by some inspector from Kerning, but that was what Kent had told me.

A shadow came to our window and knocked. A chunk of warm beef was on my face before I called for Kent. When I began chomping on the smoked meat, Kent had already opened the window and received a letter. He bade the man good-bye and closed the window, and the person in black disappeared. Kent opened the letter and began reading between us,

"_To the Mercenary Brothers,_

_The inspector had committed suicide at the hospital just before he managed to assassinate a certain person. As members of our guild, the duty lies to the 2 of you to finish the job. This person is very dangerous to our guild, and she has comrades accompanying her. The member sent with this mission initially was the one who committed suicide, and he also failed another important mission: to assassinate the comrade archer and assassin that are comrades with this person. There is a picture of the targets with their names on the back also in this envelop. Main goal for your job; is to make sure that they are all dead. Good luck. You will need it._

_-Malion, Guild leader__"_

I sighed before seeing the picture Kent was gaping about… It was the same person who I fought with earlier… The name on the back, "Ninja – Multi-jobber" I swore. The female assassin, Rosa… The male archer, Carl… I couldn't move.

Kent continued, _"P.S. This is a picture of another couple men with them."_ Kent sat down on his bed, breathless. I slipped the photos from his hands and read the names on the back, Seth and Ben… Our group… is here and ALIVE! I flew off of my bed a hurricane of excitement and happiness, and before I knew it I tackled Kent to the floor.

Kent's face was stone. He asked, "What should we do? Kill our long lost friends or risk our lives?"

-

**Mary and Baron's POV:**

It sounded like there was someone winning the lottery next door in our hotel room. We were to see that girl… the one who saved us. Maybe the action of asking VOL to help us get answers was a bad idea, but Mary was the cousin of the current leader. Malion wasn't always like the way he was now, but somehow wearing that so-called Crown of Dark Power. True he had obtained a great amount of power, but they were probably TOO much for a person. Malion was also my best friend back when we were busy trying to survive.

Now for some sleep in case something happens in the morning…

-

**Back to Ninja's POV: **

I groaned as I heard footsteps, and guessed that it was Ben. The weird thing was that I heard something start hissing. Hissing? Was there supposed to be ANYTHING hissing in a hospital? I sprung up and at the top of my lungs I yelled, "Everyone! Gas!" Tumbling was heard all over the place, and everyone had stuffed on their gas masks.

I always slipped my filter mask over my mask, and then I quickly slid on some body equipment and small weapons for close range. I loaded my Gross Jaeger before I dropped to the ground. The door was tackled open, and in came a couple of bulky shadows. I slid on my belly under my bed quietly. One of them ran and grabbed Seth (because he yelled and abruptly quieted). I aimed through the center door, but it was hard to see through the white smoke that the gas came with. "Double-Shot," I thought before pressing the trigger. Thunk-thunk the arrows had pinned the man by the door to the wall. I place my crossbow on my pack before I ran and hid along my side of the wall, marine style. I plucked out my Kandines and waited. I crouched before readying myself mentally.

I opened my eyes and charged, tackling 2 people onto the ground. Once I recognized the one on the ground as Seth, I turned my attention to the other that had full plate armour and a helmet on. I had a dagger at his throat, and both of us stopped. He suddenly moved to slam me into the wall and I sliced at his throat, but nothing happened… it slid against metal? His right hand shoved me into the wall to my right, and held me by my throat. Rosa screamed in surprise to my left as the other man had taken out the arrows and held Rosa against the wall. Carl and Ben were on the floor, unconscious from the gas.

A roar came from behind the armoured tank, "Get Away From My Girl!" The plated man flew at the other aggressor, and Seth caught me carefully as I got my breath back. Rosa was beside us complimenting Seth, "Nice throw… for a Chief Bandit." I could see the humorous grin on her face. The duo didn't move, so I carefully started towards them. "HUNWWWWwwwk!" one of them snored.

-

After a while of finding Ben's vial of awakening potion, we revived both Ben and Carl. Rosa had spent the time tying up the 2 attackers, and I took a good look at the 2. I recognized both by their weapons that were collected and dumped on Seth's bed, spear and axe. Once I whispered the information, everyone was eager to ask the duo as soon as they woke up. After a bit of planning, we fixed the door and blindfolded our victims. I pulled off my filter mask (leaving the black cloth of my usual one on), and we went back to sleep right after.

-

The morning sun peeked into the room, and I yawned before turning over onto my right side with my eyes still closed. There was another warm presence on my bed… My eyes snapped open to find someone on top of my blanket… I nearly leapt out of bed, but I saw Seth there. His eyelids looked droopy and heavy even when they were closed, so I wondered, "Was he up all night?" I carefully slid out of bed and placed Seth under the blanket.

Once I walked over to the guys' room, the warrior duo was no longer on the floor. Instead, they were stripped of their armour and individually tied to Seth's bed. The armour, packs, and weapons were stacked at the foot of the bed, and I had time to clearly study the twins' face after all these years.

-

I spent the time after dawn to prepare my supplies, and to use some of the leather I had picked up at my house to make some pads that would be attached to parts of my armour later. Ben and Rosa woke up a while later, and we had breakfast. Carl managed to get out of bed to use the washroom with Rosa by his side. Seth was splayed on my bed with the blanket half covering him. We managed to get the warriors on Seth's bed to stop snoring with the old-fashioned pinch-nose open-mouth routine.

Seth woke up an hour later and we were ready to wake up the attackers. I got a pail of water at the ready, and threw the water at the sleepy-heads. They choked awake as we tried our best to prevent giggling. After some questioning, we found out that they were Fred and Kent. We removed the blinds and introduced ourselves. A bit of joking around later, they twins were untied, and they told us their story…

_Kent and Fred's Story_

_We made it onto a boat in the middle of battle. Another fleet of ships came from the sky, and many flashing lights were seen as the Army attacked the Crimson Barlogs. About half of their boats __came down and picked us up with even more people jumping into the dark sea with scuba gear and armour to combat the sharks. We had been taken to Elinia for the head count, and we waited about a week to see if they had found our group. We left for Perion with some family members on the same day that the reports on the head counts were sent by courier to Henesys, and we were told that at Henesys the total lists of people had survived or not. We never had time to check the lists. _

_After a while of training, a man in black clothes and shades came to us and asked us if we wanted to join his mercenary guild. We saw this as a chance for a living, but our family disagreed to it. We became outcasts from our clan the moment we joined. _

_We were given assignments to strength ourselves and to kill monsters all the time. We had just been promoted to 4__th__ rank where we were told that we may have assignments to kill and assassinate people. We saw why our clan disagreed to the contract, and our first assignment was to wait at Elinia in case a 6__th__ rank captain failed his. Yes, the 6__th__ rank captain was of the Kerning Police. _

_For now on, we have quit that guild. (They rummaged through their armour and tore off the badges which I happily help__ed burn.) Before we found out the assignment, we met up with Ninja (Fred nodded towards me). Fred had a… quarrel with her, and lost. In order for us to blend back in as civilians, we had to apologize to her and we managed to do that. _

_The message came by a guild messenger that __said to finish the job. As you know now, we came to be captured or killed._

_End Story_

I saw a little bit of background blur, and I kept an eye in that general area. Something was moving in Dark-Sight there… I flicked my wrist and threw a star. "Arg!" The spy yelled. I leapt over the bed and punched the (now seen) man to the opposite wall which he froze before sliding to the ground. He had a VOL badge, so Rosa went over and pulled off his mask. Something didn't seem quite right… The man smiled… "EVERYONE DUCK!" I screamed before hitting the deck. BOOM! The man exploded.

We slowly got up and Rosa was somehow perfectly fine. Ben got the corpse out. Kent uncertainly said, "And… The 5th and higher ranks have explosives that they can detonate when-ever they want to suicide…" We began preparations to leave right after Carl had healed.

-

A while later, there seemed to be a giant argument downstairs (we were about 5 floors up). We got another phone call from the front desk about Baron and Mary again. An urgent message relayed the information that they were coming up. We panicked to see how we should hide me. An encounter with the couple isn't a great thing right now, and we don't know what they might do to find my past…OUR past. Dark-Sight would be smelt from that kargo; a lump in the blankets would be too suspicious… Ben told me to lie on his bed and be as flat as I could before he stuck a tube in my mouth which the end was over the edge of the bed. He also piled blankets on top of me. Suddenly, he flipped the bed and me into the wall.

Good plan, I was hidden and squashed. I managed to breathe though the tube without making a sound, and the door opened. I heard the conversation between the couple and my group (**a bit of script format**):

Baron: Where is the one named "Ninja"?  
Ben: Well, everyone in these 2 rooms is in this room at the moment. (I added in my thoughts, "HALF in the room.")  
Mary: We know she's in here… Hey you!  
Rosa: Hmm? I'm not called Ninja.  
Baron and Mary groans  
Seth: Well, we got to wait till our injuries heal yawn I got to get some rest.  
(Heavy footsteps and someone getting shoved into a wall)  
Baron: Where is she?! We need to find her!  
(Silence)

Mary: There isn't anyone in this room nor the other room… or so Warren says.  
Baron: Well, there has to be some secret door which she could've hidden in.  
(Intense breathing from most people in the room)  
(Baron's plated fists pounding the walls and soon hits the hidden bed where I was hiding)  
Baron: Hey, this is movable! (Some scraping heard)  
Ninja (Me): (whisper) Dark-sight  
Ben: What about that bed? I sleep on that if my patients need watching over. Since you are visitors, it seems more polite to hide such a mess.  
Baron: Mind if I sit down a while? My feet are killing me… We can chat for a while.  
Ben: Sure, go ahead. (Baron sits down on the bed, making it creak and a weight is using me and the blankets as a back-rest. He also pulls blankets to his back with his arms)  
Ninja (Me): (In head) this isn't good… he must've felt me as he sat down…  
Baron: GOTCHA! (His hands slips underneath and catches me by my neck and right leg and pins me onto his back)  
(Baron turns on bed with Ninja/me grabbing the thick arm around her neck)  
Baron: Is this her, Mary?  
(Group members look shocked)  
Mary: Yes, we finally found her. I have some rope here. No body get close, Baron can break her back anytime now.  
(**Back to story format**)

I had my hands at the thick arm, and tried to get some air. I felt Mary tie up my legs before Baron pinned me to the bed to tie my arms behind my back. While my arms were tied up, I saw the back of Mary, and it looked abnormally classed. Baron lifted me onto his shoulder and carried me to the next room through the door. Mary followed and had shut the door behind her. I saw her badge clearly, and it was a red dragon or wyvern. I was dumped onto my bed, and there was a breeze from the window.

Mary demanded, "Tell us your past. Now. We were well into 2nd job by the time you got to Victoria Island, now you can quietly guess what level we are now." I saw some blurred background behind them. I looked back and forth between Mary's and Baron's faces which were intensely trying to search into me. "Hmm…" I sounded in my throat. "Maybe we should see your entire face first." Baron commented and reached for my mask.

I saw a movement, and a pair of stars thudded into Mary's soft armour on her back. She stumbled towards me with a yelp, and I caught a glimpse of something shiny like metal on her right hand and arm as her sleeve went up for a second. Baron quickly drew his impressive Beheader (2 handed sword) and prepared for Rosa. Seth appeared behind Baron with his fast, rage-driven Savage Blow. The door was quickly knocked down and everyone else pooled in. Once Seth got a chance after Baron was stunned, he cut off my bonds and I leapt to a ready position after grabbing my daggers from my packs behind him.

Seth kicked Baron towards the window, and Mary ran over to him followed by her Kargo. "Semi-circle them now!" Seth commanded. We moved into a formation that we had not used in over 6 years. Kent was on the right end and in order to the left were Ben, me, Seth, Carl, Rosa, and Fred. The formation was curved in a semi-circle mostly used to half-circle enemies. Mary had helped Baron up and drew out a rare Pinaka (spear). Something didn't add up. Why did Mary take out a spear when she was wearing leather armour hidden under cloth armour?

I gripped my Kandines firmly, and Seth asked the couple, "Why are you both so persistent?" Baron and Mary glanced and nodded at each other before replying, "We are bound by the prophecy." Baron charged at Fred and Rosa, so I threw a Lucky Seven at him. Fred was thrown into the wall just above Rosa's bed with just an arm! Rosa caught the butt end of Mary's Pinaka in her stomach, and Carl drew his dagger (which all reasonably intelligent archers carry for close combat purposes). Carl managed to swipe a few times at Mary only to be kicked forcefully by a plated boot of Baron's, and Carl slid beside Rosa. Before we knew it, they had already taken out 3 of our buddies.

Fred was groaning after he had belly-flopped onto Rosa's bed. Carl and Rosa were desperately trying to help each other. Mary charged to my right and stabbed Kent though his stomach. Fred looked disbelieving and charged with a blood-frenzy battle cry. He was stunned with a blow to the jaw by Baron's plated fist and then flung back to the wall which Fred fell onto the bed again. Mary already moved to corner Seth and me after she pulled out a small Dimon Wand and froze Ben's hands and feet.

My hip touched the wall and I leapt a bit towards Seth in surprise. Seth seemed to realize that we were trapped, and he extended his arm to move me into the corner. Baron and Mary advanced slowly. Seth turned his head to tell me, "Run." He turned his attention back Baron and Mary quickly moving towards us. Seth stood tall and calm as he stated, "I am a Kerning Policeman. Halt!" The couple only looked at each other in surprise, but they still continued to advance.

Seth shrank back to a defensive position. Baron and Mary stopped once they were about a half of a metre in front of us. I looked around to see everyone still stuck in their situations. "Rah!" Seth growled as he attacked Mary on the right-most to give me time to slip out the window. I was almost when I thought, "Should I go to leave my friends here and save myself?" I knew I had to go, but I hesitated. An arrow caught me in the left leg, and I stumbled. Seth turned his attention to me to see if I had gone out already or not, and Seth had a Gold Hinkel (level 70 Bow) whacked into his chest from being distracted. Seth stumbled to the ground after the 2nd blow from the bow hit his left leg.

I quickly used Dark-Sight, but the purple-furred Kargo bit my arm again. I tried to make it out of the window with or without the purple kitty on my right arm, but Mary took out her wand again and froze my right leg (my only actual working leg at the time) to the floor. She walked over, twisted my arms behind my back again, and re-tied them. A black cloth covered my eyes as I was blind-folded, helplessly.

I could only hear friends groaning and Ben swearing at the top of his lungs while yelling for assistance. I was lifted onto a hard metal shoulder and held down by my good leg. Sounds of my friends were fading away as I felt only wind brush past me. Before long, I fell unconscious.

-

I woke up and tried to move, but my upper body and my right leg was tied down. I opened my eyes to find myself on a bed with my injured leg mended, and the rest of me was tightly strapped down. I looked at my surroundings to find Seth to my right chained to his bed, unconscious or asleep. He looked pretty beat up due to the 2 giant bruises on his face. The walls were wood, and there were tables with what seemed to be light-flies in lava-lamp containers. There was a light switch by the door, and the door was to my left close to the wall I could see. I looked up to see a lighting device which would most likely be turned on and off by the switch.

We're inside a tree, or so I think… a tree in how many? More than few billion trees in Elinia? We won't be able to count on search and rescue that easily. There was something missing, or something-s missing. I left around for my belt, and it wasn't there… I felt my right hand; they took off my claw… I could still feel my necklaces around my neck and I know that my mask is still on. The clothes I am wearing are still mine, only the left shin guard, shoe, and sock was beside my bed (I found on the ground after peeking over). I gently flexed my leg and found that I was well mended.

I heard voices outside the room. I pretended to still be unconscious while I listened, but I only heard undecipherable words. The door opened, and I peek to see Mary and Baron. Baron walked to the other side of Seth, and Mary came to my right (between Seth and me). Baron had his leather armour on, and Mary had similar armour that exposed her Blue Scarab (level 70 claw).

She calmly stated, "I know that you're awake." I grunted and let my eyes open. She asked, "Are you going to answer our questions yet?" I didn't make a sound. Mary continued, "Because if you won't say anything, then your friend here CAN suffer for it. Hmm… the way he fought against us earlier makes me think that the 2 of you have a very, VERY close relationship." I ground my teeth. What happened while I was unconscious?

Baron stated, "Now, I know that you're awake as well." He knuckled a bruise on Seth's cheek enough to make Seth groan. Baron stuffed a piece of leather into Seth's mouth, and we both saw a dagger unsheathe.

Mary sat back onto Seth's bed, and stared at me. Baron pulled off the blanket exposing Seth's chest with only his shirt on, and Seth's hands were tied behind his back. The dagger went at Seth's gut, and he moaned though the leather as the dagger came up red, a bright red. Seth kept trying to tell me to not tell them though his eyes and shaking his head 'no's, but his eyes kept shutting tightly due to pain. I nodded and tried to shut out his pained sounds. After 5 torturous minutes, Seth's chest was completely covered in red. He was breathing heavily.

Mary questioned, "Your answer?" I shut my eyes as I thought of an answer. An idea came to me, and I proposed, "How about I'll ask you a detailed question which you _have to_ answer truthfully after you ask me a detailed question which I have to answer truthfully?" I stared right back into her eyes, and I was curious how she was using a wand, a spear, and wearing a claw? The other curiosity was why had Baron used a 2 handed sword and then used a bow? Multi-jobbed people were rare, and these types of people meeting together were… difficult.

She smiled and agreed. Her question was, "Why did you take on all 4 different classes?" I easily grinned under my mask and answered, "Because I couldn't choose which one I wanted the most. I like all 4 different traits." I could see Seth trying to repress his laughter when Mary and Baron questioned if I told a lie. He burst out shaking his head 'no, it's the truth' and having tears streaming down his eyes from pain and laughing. Wait… A person stabbed in the chest so many times would have died by now…

I thought hard before questioning, "Since you and Baron have taken on multi-jobs as well, why have you targeted and attacked us of many possible others who are also multi-jobbed?" The question worked wonders as she answered, "We aren't against multi-jobbed people, we KNOW that you are in the prophecy as the only 4 jobbed person alive right now."

Baron continued, "I had a dream with Mary of 4 Elves and Humans of the legendary 4th Job Advancement. (Mary nodded for him to continue) I was sent back out earlier, because we were chased by a VOL member by the name of Furel. I carried Mary as far away as I could while she was in the dream and succeeded in making Furel lose our trail. I collapsed, when you rescued us by helping us conserve body heat."

He nodded for Mary to talk, "I was told of a new prophecy by the Elf known for his mastery in magical abilities. He told me:

The woman of every known class will change the world,  
She will end the world or save it from peril,  
Materials needed are manuscripts and abilities of the old,  
The chosen lady will fight through the cold.

Dark creatures are resurrected though dark books,  
One knows not what the enemy cooks,  
Light and darkness battle for balance,  
And each will have superior talents.

For each person two paths are shown for a small price,  
Futures vary just like the dice,  
The side of life one chooses depends,  
Though the path that needs aid has two whom will have light to lend.

Both will win, both will lose,  
The great flights stops their snooze,  
The ancient race reveals,  
Which side needs to prevail.

Friend may become foe and foe may become friend,  
All for the great balance which holds the world together.

Afterwards, I slowly became conscious with Baron waking me up."

I blinked at my luck. Mary smiled and continued, "We should do this until one or the other runs out of questions." I looked at Seth who nodded in agreement. I realized something else, the 3rd stanza? "Aw… not again…" I groaned inwardly. Wait… he nodded?

Baron smiled for the first time (that Ninja/I have seen him) and commented, "Since you thought of is question for question idea, I'll show you something else." He held the dagger pointed down and put a finger at the tip of the sharp-looking edge. Baron effortlessly pushed the tip up into the hilt and some of the red pigment flowed out. He pretty much stripped off Seth's shirt to show that Seth's chest has some big, ugly bruises.

They couple checked to make sure we were comfortable (and took Seth's shirt for washing after carefully stripping him of it). A slim and strong looking female Chief Bandit wielding a pair of Gold Double Knives walked into the room with 2 trays filled with food. A Male Priest walked in with a folded table and unfolded it between Seth and me. After the trays were set onto the table, Seth and I were untied before they left.

I heard the lock click into place before commenting, "At least they have a nice jail cell." Seth chuckled before he inspected the food. He stated that he could find nothing wrong, and we ate the delicious food. After we were done, I wobbled on one good leg over to Seth. I checked his injuries to find that someone else had already checked them over better than I could. I fell once and Seth leapt out of his bed to catch me only to put pressure on his dark purple bruises. I was happy to find that our other stuff that were in bins under our beds though.

Since we had nothing to do and injuries that would affect our escape, we decided to rest.

--

I started and I couldn't stop. Extra long chapter, and I don't know if this will happen again or not… o.O

I wonder how far my imagination will stretch next chapter .


	9. Chapter 8

The Lone Ninja

**The Lone Ninja**

**Chapter 8**

Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story.

Author's Note: I like to read more than write :P

* * *

Over time, we were introduced to Serene (the Chief Bandit and Fire/Poison Mage) and Tyler (the Priest and Sniper) who brought us the foldable table and the food on our first night. A clock was brought in and the hours passed into at least a week with every day containing the same careful question and answer routine. Seth and I no longer had any questions to ask, and we were right in the middle of brainstorming what information we may need. We already found out that Baron's and Mary's group had a close connection with the current VOL leader, and some delicate strings attached to our situation. Meanwhile, we gave them vague details about our past.

-

The hour hand moved to 3, and Baron and Mary came in again. Mary stated, "We couldn't think of any more questions, so we'll answer one last question from you." I blinked in surprise at our fortune, and replied, "No questions here either, I guess the questions and answers have come to a halt… What will happen now?"

Silence filled the room. Mary drew back into a ready stance, and Baron followed he cue by drawing his Beheader. Seth and I took the hint and pretended to be afraid. I spotted the furry, purple kitty/cargo beside Mary's leg. Seth used dark sight and the cargo dashed towards a seemingly open space. I rolled into the small walkway and used the momentum to throw 2 stars at the invisible-person hunter. The cargo leapt back behind Mary and hissed at me.

Baron and Mary advanced towards me; I wanted them to do that. Seth appeared behind Baron with a deadly accurate Savage Blow, and Baron collapsed in pain. Soon Mary spun in furious circles sending barrages of throwing stars everywhere. I kicked the Beheader under a bed which had stopped beside the now-empty boxes. Seth was hopping from foot to foot just to dodge the sharp thrown stars. I waited under cover and watched for any patterns, and when I finally found one the stars stopped. I peeked carefully out of my cover to see Seth holding a Golden River dagger pointed at Mary's throat. With a swift motion, he hit her on the back of the head to knock her out (that can kill if one is not skilled).

We took a few breaths before trying the couple, dumping them on the beds, and tying up the purple pet as well (which bit and scratched us). We used Dark Sight, shut the door behind us, and held each other's hands to make sure we don't get separated. We went to the right in the hallway and ended up in a surprisingly large dining room and kitchen. Serene and Tyler were there, and there were a 6 other hall ways that lead out of the dining hall. We stayed in the shadows and crept around them to the opposite side.

The end of the hallway was guild hall which contained at least 50 people. Most of them wore their single jobbed weapon(s) and armour, but all of them were having a great time together. I looked to our right and saw a medieval metal style of door. I guessed that that door was the front door, and I tugged Seth to that thick metal door. We stood beside that door and waited until someone entered or left to be completely sure.

A minute later, Serene ran into the hall and raised the alarm. She told everyone to be on the lookout for a multi-jobber and a Chief Bandit. She also explained the seriousness of Baron's injuries and that he'll live, and Mary was only knocked out. The people nearest to the door, locked the dull-metal door and set a large bar that looked like there was going to be a siege soon.

Seth tugged me into another hallway and opened the door to find that it was a small storage closet. He pulled me inside, and closed the door. He appeared in a small "poof" and signalled me in the dark to do the same. I did and we talked in barely audible whispers as we agreed to get out once everything and everyone quieted down and went to bed.

-

A few hours later, all the talking and footsteps faded as doors opened and closed. They should be getting ready to sleep. We waited another couple hours only to hear no one. I cautiously opened the closet door and looked up and down the hallway. No one was there. Seth and I quietly and calmly walked to the front door as if we were one of this guild's members. We did the same as we unlocked the door and settled the heavy bar to the side where it once was. Seth pulled the door open gently and quietly, and the greased hinges helped. The 2 of us slipped outside and took in our surroundings.

The moon was shining well and the weather looks good. There were a forest in front of us and we started to jump from branch to branch in Elinia's massive trees. Once we found a knothole that looked like a regular cave, we went inside and checked our GPS to find that we were around the Perion-Elinia border. Our communication device showed that we missed quite a few calls from our friends in the past week, and we sent them a message that we were safe and heading back to the hospital or where-ever they were. Seth collapsed, and I took out a blanket to keep him warm. I sat by the entrance and kept and eye out for anyone else in the trees for half the night when Seth woke up and told me to get some rest. I was too tired to argue and slept until dawn.

-

I woke up rested and we made a fast journey to the hospital which lasted another 36 hours, where we were warmly welcomed by the hospital staff. Once we got back to the room, Seth was shoved back into his bed complaining when Ben said something of doing a full check to make sure Seth was ok. I tried to hide my giggle and Ben commented that I was next, which made everyone else trying hard to not laugh. After the checks were done, we found out that we were going to Henesys next. Every person in the room was deemed well enough to travel after some through health inspections.

-

We had left the hospital at noon the next day and Ben had a great amount of time spent on saying good-byes to the other doctors and nurses. We descended to bottom floor of the forest by sliding down ropes and ladders, and then we headed to Henesys on the well worn path with a width of 2 meters. The journey was easy due to the soft soil, but there were some big roots that sometimes lay across the path.

Our group was in our old "Travelling Formation" which is: the 2 warriors in the rear, Ben in the center, Rosa and Carl flanking Ben's left and right, and Seth and me leading with me on Seth's right. To get past the humongous roots, we sometimes had to slip into "Single-File Formation" (bored little kiddies) which is basically the Travelling Formation with me behind Seth, Rosa between me and Ben, Carl between Ben and Fred, and Kent taking up the rear.

A while later on the trail, I heard some ruffling above. I looked up and saw a group of people leaping from tree branch to branch in a great hurry. They each wore armour of their own classes, so I dismissed them as people who wanted to get to Henesys faster. I looked around to see that everyone in our group was thinking the same thing I was. The groups continued on without looking down at their pace and we lost sight and sound of them after 15 minutes or so.

We continued walking until the sun seemed to begin disappearing. Camp was quickly set up in a tree's roots that doubled as shelter with only one entrance. A small fire was made in a dug-out spot in the middle. We untied our sleeping pads, bags, or blankets and slept with Kent taking first watch.

A hand shook me awake not long after. Fred was finished his watch after Kent and I went to sit by the entrance. I stayed alert for any signs of trouble until the moon was shining directly above us. I walked like a midget to Rosa's side and shook her awake for her watch. She moaned and rubbed her eyes before making her way over to the entrance. I slid right back into my sleeping bag and quickly fell asleep again.

-

_-In Dream-_

_I was on the ground belly down. I had my arms folded at my sides to push myself up, but I waited motionless to sense for any moving creature before getting up. Nothing... I lifted my head and opened my eyes. _

_The sky and ground were red. Thousands of monster and human bodies littered the ground. A battleground. How did I end up here?_

_I got up and picked up a pair of daggers that are missing from their home on my waist. The daggers were soaked in blood. Pitch black blood from a dark monster.__ I looked around me to see no corpses around me and a monster on the soil a couple meters in front of me. I checked the nearby armoured or robed corpses beside me to find that they were all cold. I turned the monster which I supposedly defeated in leader to leader combat. It looked like a Crimson Barlog, but it was completely armoured from head to toe. _

_A large wicked-looking sword lay beside it. The blade was onyx coloured and as wide as a scimitar. The edges showed many chips due to carelessness. The hilt made the entire sword look like a short-sword for a creature of that Barlog's size. _

_-_

_I scanned my surroundings only to see the sea of corpses rotting in the valley. In the far distance behind me there was a few large wagons pulled by tamed Yetis. Groups of men were tossing and placing corpses onto the wagons. I started to run over, but agonizing pain in my right thigh caused me to trip. I looked at the deep injury in my leg, and found a bandage in a pouch to hold it well enough together. I cleaned my daggers and sheathed them then pull out my spear. My Redemption (spear) worked well as a walking stave only it was a bit too long. _

_Once I had gotten close enough, the men were placing bodies of their comrades with their weapons carefully and tossing the monster corpses into the wagons. Their faces were full of hopelessness, and they didn't even glance at me once I had gotten close enough. They were all lightly armoured with short-swords at their sides__ and helmets on their heads, but their shoulders sagged as if they were the walking dead. Some were the normal lean young men and some were shorter and a bit wider around the torso. One man was kind enough to point me to a camp farther down. More limping for me… hurray._

_I arrived at the camp and collapsed. My left leg was tired already so I sat up the best I could without dirtying my bandage. The camp was made of 15 __carnival tents, a large area for the yetis, a human listing area that took care of naming each human dead, and a large area with many women working at monster corpses for material. The human listing area had about 20 wagons of coffins, at least 50 empty ones, and a few wagons that still had human corpses from the field. The desk seems to ID each corpse before the corpse was settled into the coffin with it's' weapon and the lid was ID-ed with a plaque before it was put onto a wagon. The dead monster area had fires and knives working all the time and the extracted materials were packaged into crates. The unusable wastes were piled into a bonfire in the middle. The yeti enclosure contained many white and brown tamed yetis sleeping until their shift. They had a loose leash which tied them in groups to posts. All the humans in the area were chatting quietly or whispering. _

_There were a group of humans stretching, eating, and sleeping by the giant tents until their shift. I got up and made my way to the humans on their break when one of them spotted me and alerted the others. He ran over and carried me like a bride into a tent. Once he settled me on a clean bed, I looked up and thanked him. __His oddly sharp ears revealed that he was an Elf from the Legends. _

_A woman dressed in white robes appeared at my bedside and she stripped me of my weapons and outer armour. __I tried to sit up only to be pushed back into bed, but I caught a glimpse of red on my bandage. I saw her pull out some equipment, and she drugged me with something on a clean piece of cloth. _

_-End Dream-_

-

I groggily got up into a sitting position. It was going to be dawn soon, and Carl was up on last watch. I closed my eyes to hear the leaves on and around the tree waving in the morning breeze. The usual sounds of waking monsters and creatures had started their roaming, but they were awfully close to our tree tent.

Carl moved to get another view from the small doorway. Fff-whump! A thick crossbow arrow flew right by his head. His eyes grew wide as he saw it quivering as the butt end stuck out in a thick root. Immediately Carl yelled danger and everyone woke up. Sleeping stuff was immediately away and Fred and Kent had large shields blocking the entrance. By Seth's order, "Shield Formation" we slowly moved out to spot the offenders. Kent and Fred lead the way either their shields, I took out my own and stood between the 2, Seth was right behind me with Ben and Rosa flanking right and left, and Carl brought up the rear. We were surrounded.

Many colors of clothing were seen in the trees surrounding us, and many more were had moved out of their hiding places of the bushes to block any chance of escape. I flinched from hopelessness and then I felt a hand on my right shoulder. Seth's voice whispered, "Look at their guild emblem." The guild symbol of the Red Dragon was on every single left breast.

Tyler, Serene, Mary, and Baron stood in front of us with unreadable poker faces. Baron walked towards us and stopped in between us and the other 3 people Seth and I met. Seth firmly made his way towards Baron by gently pushing Kent and me apart. Awkwardly Mary walked up and stood beside Baron, so I went to stand beside Seth. They were only about a meter away from us as we stood in silence.

Baron looked over to me and began, "At least you are safe." He grinned with relief at Seth which confused the 2 of us. Baron's face grew serious after a small moment, and he continued, "We would like to invite both of you and your party to our guild." I turned my head to see that Seth was staring at me and we were both surprised. Seth regained his composure with a deep breath and asked, "Why were we, especially Ninja, treated as a captive or a prisoner every time we met?"

Baron and Mary sighed before Baron answered, "Perhaps we'd better reintroduce ourselves. I am Baron Fireheart and this is Mary Swiftbreeze. We are 2 of the 4 Guild Masters of Bera's Hope. Our guild is dedicated to protecting and supporting any hope of Bera's survival in any major conflict. This guild has been around for generations, even before the Black Wars."

An arrow found its' way into the chest of a magician man's chest. Everyone immediately searched the area for the archer who shot it, but who ever it was they were unseen. It was until the enemy shot a second arrow, which flew right past Baron's head and into Tyler's back when he was attending the injured man, was the ranger hiding in a thick cluster of branches and leaves in a tree.

The ranger dressed in brown and green turned and ran, but the various ice spells and arrows flew at him in a barrage. A few arrows found their mark into his back and limbs, but the ice froze his legs while he was in mid-air. He plunged to the forest floor after crashing into a large branch. Baron immediately ordered most of the guild to stay put while a select few of them went to investigate when there was an explosion.

The group came back reporting the man as dead from the explosion and the burning symbol of VOL on his clothes. My group looked back and forth to see each other's grim expression. No one was safe any longer.

Baron turned to us after his return and demanded, "Well?" Seth asked for more time, but Mary cut in, "We need your answer _now_." Seth asked once again for the same thing, so Baron replied by inviting us into their guild hall and think there. Seth shook his head as he said, "We need to get to Henesys for a large bit of business." Baron took a breath before making his decision, "A group of us will come with you to Henesys for this business, but you have to make a decision as soon as possible."

-

Surprisingly, the ones from the guild who came along were all 4 of the leaders. Baron, Mary, Serene, and Tyler walked with us. They assured us that the 4 junior leaders would be in charge. The rest of the walk was quiet as everyone listened intently for any movement other than ours. When we finally arrived at Henesys, we all went to a hotel to rest for the night. We managed to get a cabin with enough beds for all 11 of us. I climbed onto my bunk bed above Seth's and fell asleep before I had gotten settled.

-

-_In Dream-_

_I awoke in a strange bed with that same male Elf staring at me. "Brenda," he softly whispered, "I thought I lost you." H__e stroked my hair. My mouth, or the mouth belonging to 'Brenda', replied, "Sinbad, how did the battle fare?" He closed his eyes and carefully said, "It was a slaughter for both sides. We barely have enough fighters as it is." Sinbad gave a weak smile and commented, "We need you well for the next battle. Rest well while you have the chance." Then he gave a loving kiss on Brenda's forehead. Sinbad left the tent most likely to do his shift with the deceased. _

_Through her eyes, Brenda lifted her right hand and stroked a ring on her right ring finger with her left hand. The ring was simple, metal band with a jewel of every sort appearing as circular stitches in the band. She lifted a necklace from her neck and __started polishing it with a clean sleeve. That necklace was very familiar mostly because the golden crest contained 4 colors of gems: red, purple, green, and pink. However there was a strange blue crystal at the center of the shield. _

_A nurse came and placed a tray with legs, that makes it look like a miniature table, loaded with food. The food were all vegetables and fruit, and Brenda ate slowly even though our stomach was using its' claws. After the meal was done, another nurse came by and removed the tray with neatly stacked dishes. Darkness __crawled back into our minds after Brenda checked her leg injury. _

_-End Dream-_

-

I slowly sat up in my bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. The sun was shining though half opened window as I looked at Seth's bunk to see him resting peacefully. An arrow though on our door caught my attention. I went down to inspect it, and found a note neatly tied to it. By the time I got the note off, Seth and Ben were just waking up. I opened the note by the door and it said:

"To: The unlucky couple,

Be prepared to die. Your cousin's hired killer, me, is in town. I won't fail this time.

-Furel"

I showed Seth the note quickly and pointed to the sender's name. Baron and Mary are in trouble… I opened the door to the hallway cautiously, but no one was around. Baron and Mary's door was open and the room was empty so I went to Tyler and Serene's door and knocked. Tyler cracked open the door, so I questioned him where Baron and Mary were. He said, "They went to the market place for some shopping." Seth was behind me in an instant fully prepared for a battle, so I tossed the note in Tyler's face and quickly slipped on the rest of my gear.

Meanwhile, Ben was preparing breakfast for everyone in the kitchen and everyone else were still waking up. Seth gave Ben a quick summary of the situation and the 2 of us charged out the front door and into the marketplace.

-

The Henesys Market was a busy place even during early mornings. I spotted a few black leather armoured bandits and assassins, some heavily armoured warriors, and some light clothed mages. I was running behind Seth, and people immediately got out of our way upon the sight of Seth's badge and others jumped out of our way when they saw my large assortment of weapons. We were running for at least 15 minutes straight, and we're finally finished searching the 1st quadrant of the free market… out of 30. Seth ran over to a man who wore the badge of the Henesys Police. Immediately, walkie-talkies were out and the identification of Baron and Mary were sent out.

Not even a minute later, there was a message crackling, "I found them; they're in the Free Market's 14th quadrant." Seth and I thanked the officer and ran down the big main road that branches out to all 30 quadrants. We saw the signed numbered 14 with an arrow to the right, and we began our run and search again. I saw a man in black leather armour with an unsheathed dagger focused on something to the right farther up ahead. I looked to see what he was staring at, and I saw the familiar light robed mage beside a semi-heavy armoured warrior.

I pointed to them and breathed, "Seth! Over there!" We charged at Furel and Seth managed to pin him down while I picked up Furel's dagger. The VOL symbol was exposed on his left breast after a few slashes his dagger. Seth was too busy trying to keep him pinned down when I saw Furel smile and relax a bit. The explosions at the hospital found their way into my mind, so I yanked off Seth and stabbed Furel's chest with the dagger in 1 fluid motion before leaping away. The crowd had already stepped at least 3 meters back when Seth tackled Furel, but I didn't catch Baron and Mary's shocked faces until I crashed into them with Seth already tripping them from my pull.

I heard a cat scream its' discontent before we reached the ground. Seth had screamed for everyone to get down; then there was the fiery explosion.

* * *

Word count of over 4k works… Next chapters will take a while o.O


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